Cridge Brain Injury Services – Initiatives

Alzheimer’s, Dementia & Brain Injury

We are now reaching an era where survivors of brain injury are aging and the health implications associated with brain injury and aging are not fully understood. What we do know is that 160,000 new brain injuries occur each year in this country, and currently over 1,000,000 Canadians are living with the outcome of a brain injury.¹

Overall, we live in an aging population and although we can enjoy the benefits of living longer, inevitably health concerns also rise. Alzheimer’s and dementia are major concerns. In 2016, the Census reports nearly 227,500 Canadians aged 45 and older have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.²

There is a direct link between brain injury and Alzheimer’s and dementia. Dementia is a brain dysfunction that crosses all levels of age, gender, and race. It does not have a cure; however, through decades of research, we now know that several factors contribute to a person developing dementia. Brain injury is one of the contributing factors. If an individual’s injury causes them to lose consciousness it “increases the risk of Alzheimer’s by 2.3 times and nearly triples the risk of dementia.”³

The Cridge Centre for the Family is researching and exploring support opportunities in this area.

To read more about how traumatic brain injury may lead to Alzheimer’s Disease, please click here.

3 - Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease (p.102)