Traumatic Brain Injury: Sex and Gender Implications

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) poses a significant threat to public health, with its impact reaching beyond the affected individual and family. It has recently become clear that in the context of TBI, both as an acute injury and as a chronic disorder, the course of recovery and ultimate health outcomes are subject not only to the social gradient but are also the product of sex (i.e., which constitutes the biological and physiological bases that make male and female individuals distinct from one another), as well as socially-constructed gender (i.e., norms, behaviors, relations that are socialized). To ensure that patients, family members, and clinicians have sufficient understanding of the sex and gender implications in TBI recovery and outcomes, we will cover the results of recent scientific evidence, and evidence that emerged from knowledge, needs, and skills assessments of patients with TBI, their informal caregivers, and rehabilitation care clinicians.