One Childhood Concussion Tanks Your Odds of Going to College

You know how people tend to brush off concussions like they’re no big deal? You probably shouldn’t. Even a mild concussion as a child could derail your college plans.

A study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology found that kids who suffer from a single mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) are way less likely to go to college—15 percent less likely. From just one concussion.

Wear a helmet, kids. Everywhere. Grocery store. In the pool. Doing homework.

Just 1 Concussion Lowers Your Odds of Going to College

The study conducted by a group of Finnish researchers looked at the health data of over 136,000 kids who had to get hospital treatment for brain injuries. The results are stark: kids who had a concussion or worse were less likely to go to college or get a degree.

If you had a brain bleed, your chances of attending college dropped by 22 percent. If you managed to make it to college despite your childhood traumatic brain injury, you were 19 percent less likely to get an advanced degree.

That little bump on the head that made you forget where you were in time and space is more than a little whoopie that you get over in a week. The effects could ripple out throughout the rest of your life.

These injuries can mess with cognitive abilities, learning, and overall mental health. While things like socioeconomic status do play a part, this study hammers home the fact that brain injuries need to be taken seriously, no matter the severity, and should be prevented as much as possible.

Schools and healthcare systems need to take a hard look at how TBIs affect kids long-term because while the study leans more toward correlation and not direct causation, it’s probably a good idea to keep a child’s soft-developing brain as free from traumatic injuries as possible.

If they do suffer from concussions, we may need to provide them with a more tailored educational experience. Or, at the very least, keep that injury in mind as they progress through their schooling.