A - 138 Using the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) Informatics System to Understand Complex Associations between Traumatic Brain Injury and Alcohol or Substance Use.

Abstract

Associations between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and alcohol or substance use are complex and likely bidirectional. The purpose of this project was to conduct a proof-of-concept study demonstrating our ability to compile patient-level TBI data from shared studies in the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) Informatics System to improve our understanding of key TBI outcomes. We searched the FITBIR database for shared studies reporting alcohol or substance use among participants with TBI. We merged and harmonized data across the relevant studies to determine rates of alcohol or substance use by TBI severity. In the alcohol use sample (N = 1539), 82% of participants had a history of mild TBI and 46% met criteria for alcohol use disorder (AUD). Participants with a history of mild TBI had 1.34 greater odds of screening positive for AUD (95% CI: 0.98, 1.82) and males had 2.48 increased odds of screening positive for AUD (95% CI: 1.67, 3.68). Unfortunately, due to limited data on substance use we were unable to conduct the intended analyses for this outcome. Data support research and theory suggesting that rates of AUD are higher among individuals with mild TBI versus those without, particularly among males. Additionally, this proof-of-concept study established methods, created data harmonization and analysis code, and provided the TBI-SUD meta dataset back to FITBIR for dissemination. Further, numerous additional datasets have been shared with the FITBIR platform since the time of these analyses, which will allow our team and others to extend these analyses over time.