People who have studied in the university are more likely to recover from a brain injury

People who have been to university are better able to recover from traumatic brain injuries, new research suggests.

They are seven times more likely to make a full recovery than people who did not finish school, The Daily Mail reported.

People who have remained in education for longer have a greater ‘cognitive reserve’, which means they are less likely to be left permanently disabled after a head injury.

‘After these types of injuries, some people are disabled for life and are never able to go back to work, while other people who have similar injuries recover fully,’ said study author Dr Eric Schneider of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Neurology, studied 769 people who had suffered head injuries – mostly in traffic accidents and falls.

The participants were grouped by their levels of education – 24 per cent did not finish school, 51 per cent had 12 to 15 years of education and 25 per cent had obtained at least an undergraduate degree.

One year after the injury, 28 per cent of the patients had no disability and were able to return to work or study.

Only 10 per cent of those who did not finish school were free of disability, compared to 31 per cent of those with some college education and 39 per cent of those with a college degree.

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