Dataset Information

Age of first exposure to football and later-life cognitive impairment in former NFL players.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine the relationship between exposure to repeated head impacts through tackle football prior to age 12, during a key period of brain development, and later-life executive function, memory, and estimated verbal IQ.

Methods

Forty-two former National Football League (NFL) players ages 40-69 from the Diagnosing and Evaluating Traumatic Encephalopathy using Clinical Tests (DETECT) study were matched by age and divided into 2 groups based on their age of first exposure (AFE) to tackle football: AFE <12 and AFE ?12. Participants completed the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST), Neuropsychological Assessment Battery List Learning test (NAB-LL), and Wide Range Achievement Test, 4th edition (WRAT-4) Reading subtest as part of a larger neuropsychological testing battery.

Results

Former NFL players in the AFE <12 group performed significantly worse than the AFE ?12 group on all measures of the WCST, NAB-LL, and WRAT-4 Reading tests after controlling for total number of years of football played and age at the time of evaluation, indicating executive dysfunction, memory impairment, and lower estimated verbal IQ.

Conclusions

There is an association between participation in tackle football prior to age 12 and greater later-life cognitive impairment measured using objective neuropsychological tests. These findings suggest that incurring repeated head impacts during a critical neurodevelopmental period may increase the risk of later-life cognitive impairment. If replicated with larger samples and longitudinal designs, these findings may have implications for safety recommendations for youth sports.

SUBMITTER: Stamm JM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4371403 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Age of first exposure to football and later-life cognitive impairment in former NFL players.

Stamm Julie M JM Bourlas Alexandra P AP Baugh Christine M CM Fritts Nathan G NG Daneshvar Daniel H DH Martin Brett M BM McClean Michael D MD Tripodis Yorghos Y Stern Robert A RA

Neurology 20150128 11

<h4>Objective</h4>To determine the relationship between exposure to repeated head impacts through tackle football prior to age 12, during a key period of brain development, and later-life executive function, memory, and estimated verbal IQ.<h4>Methods</h4>Forty-two former National Football League (NFL) players ages 40-69 from the Diagnosing and Evaluating Traumatic Encephalopathy using Clinical Tests (DETECT) study were matched by age and divided into 2 groups based on their age of first exposur ...[more]

PMID: 25632088

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Project description:Objectives: To identify novel targets for neurorehabilitation of people with a remote history of multiple concussions by: (1) comprehensively characterizing neuropsychiatric and cognitive functioning in former professional football players, with a focus on executive functions; (2) distinguishing concussion-related findings from pre-morbid/cohort characteristics of professional football players; and, (3) exploring the relationship between executive functions and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Participants: Sixty-one high-functioning former professional football players and 31 age- and sex-matched control participants without history of concussion or participation in contact sports. Design: Between-groups analyses. Main measures: Neuropsychiatric. Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) clinical scales plus the Aggression treatment consideration scale; the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Cognitive. Comprehensive clinical neuropsychological battery assessing domains of verbal and visuospatial attention; speed of processing and memory; current and estimated pre-morbid IQ; and, executive functioning, including two experimental measures that were novel for this population (i.e., response inhibition and inconsistency of responding on a go/no-go task). Results: (1) Compared to control participants, former professional football players scored significantly higher on the PAI Depression, Mania, and Aggression scales, and significantly lower on response inhibition. (2) Relative to controls, former players with >3 concussions ( x¯=6.1 ), but not former players with ≤ 3 concussions ( x¯=2.0 ), showed (i) significantly higher scores on the PAI Depression scale, (ii) significantly more MINI clinical diagnoses overall, and manic/hypomanic episodes specifically, and (iii) significantly poorer executive function. (3) Mediation analysis revealed that concussion exposure had a significant indirect effect on PAI Depression, Mania, and Aggression via inconsistency of responding on the go/no-go task. Conclusions: Notable impairments to neuropsychiatric functioning and worse performance on a sensitive experimental measure of executive function were observed; these were related to both concussion history and pre-morbid (cohort) factors. Therefore, neuropsychiatric and executive functioning should be carefully assessed in those with a remote history of multiple concussions. Moreover, former players' neuropsychiatric symptoms were associated with inconsistency of responding; this suggests that treatments targeted at response inconsistency could help to mitigate neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

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Dataset Information

Age of first exposure to football and later-life cognitive impairment in former NFL players.

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Age of first exposure to football and later-life cognitive impairment in former NFL players.

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