This study investigated the relationship between exposure to concussions in American football and long-term cognitive performance in former players. The results showed that player-reported concussion symptoms were associated with poorer cognitive performance, while other variables, such as diagnosed concussions or years played, were not associated.
Concussions are a type of mild traumatic brain injury caused by a sudden impact or movement of the head, which causes the brain to move rapidly within the skull. This can result in temporary impairment of brain function.
Immediate symptoms can include headache, dizziness, confusion, memory loss, and nausea. In the long term, multiple concussions can lead to persistent cognitive problems, mood changes, and neurodegenerative diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Without proper treatment, a concussion can increase the risk of more serious brain injuries, especially if additional concussions occur before full recovery.
Concussions are dangerous because, even though the symptoms may be subtle or temporary, the cumulative damage can have lasting effects and impact quality of life.
This study published in the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology by researchers at the Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, USA, aimed to investigate the relationship between exposure to contact sports, specifically American football, and cognitive performance in former professional football players.
The researchers were particularly interested in understanding how concussion exposure and playing time affected athletes’ cognitive function in their post-career lives, with a focus on the long-term impact of these experiences.
The study included 353 former professional football players, with an average age of 54.3 years, who completed two types of assessments:
A battery of cognitive tests administered online that measured objective cognitive performance.
A survey that collected information about the participants’ current health, including data on the number and nature of concussions they had suffered during their career.
Participants also provided information on the number of years they had played football, the age at which they began playing, and the concussion symptoms they recalled experiencing while playing.
In addition to the former players, the study also compared cognitive performance data with a control sample of 5,086 men who had not played professional football.
The study was conducted an average of 29 years after the former players' last football game, allowing researchers to analyze the long-term impact of exposure to this contact sport.
The results showed that the cognitive performance of former players was significantly associated with the concussion symptoms they recalled experiencing during their career.
These symptoms were negatively correlated with cognitive performance, meaning that the more concussion symptoms the players reported, the worse their results on the cognitive tests.
The correlation was -0.19, indicating a moderate association between these factors. However, no significant correlation was observed between cognitive performance and other variables, such as the number of concussions diagnosed, years of playing, or age at first exposure to football.
This suggests that subjective concussion symptoms, as recalled by the players, had a greater impact on cognitive performance than other aspects related to football exposure.
One possible explanation for the observed results is that players with worse cognitive performance may have had lower cognitive functioning before suffering concussions, which could not be verified due to the lack of data on their prior cognitive performance.
However, the study highlights that, among the various measures of football exposure, concussion symptoms reported by former players were more sensitive to cognitive impact than diagnosed concussions or length of football exposure.
The study suggests that for future investigations into the long-term effects of contact sports exposure, it is important to include measures of sport-related concussion symptoms, as these symptoms may provide more accurate information about the impacts on cognitive performance.
In addition, the researchers emphasize the need to continue exploring how traumatic brain injuries and other factors contribute to cognitive decline over time in former contact sports athletes.
READ MORE:
Association of Retrospectively Reported Concussion Symptoms with Objective Cognitive Performance in Former American-Style Football Players
Roger W Strong, Rachel Grashow, Andrea L Roberts, Eliza Passell, Luke Scheuer, Douglas P Terry, Sarah Cohan, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Marc G Weisskopf, Ross D Zafonte and Laura T Germine
Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, Volume 38, Issue 6, Pages 875–890.
Abstract:
Sustaining concussions has been linked to health issues later in life, yet evidence for associations between contact sports exposure and long-term cognitive performance is mixed. This cross-sectional study of former professional American-style football players tested the association of several measures of football exposure with later life cognitive performance, while also comparing the cognitive performance of former players to nonplayers. In total, 353 former professional football players (Mage = 54.3) completed both (1) an online cognitive test battery measuring objective cognitive performance and (2) a survey querying demographic information, current health conditions, and measures of past football exposure, including recollected concussion symptoms playing professional football, diagnosed concussions, years of professional play, and age of first football exposure. Testing occurred an average of 29 years after former players’ final season of professional play. In addition, a comparison sample of 5,086 male participants (nonplayers) completed one or more cognitive tests. Former players’ cognitive performance was associated with retrospectively reported football concussion symptoms (rp = −0.19, 95% CI −0.09 to −0.29; p < 0.001), but not with diagnosed concussions, years of professional play, or age of first football exposure. This association could be due to differences in pre-concussion cognitive functioning, however, which could not be estimated based on available data. Future investigations of the long-term outcomes of contact sports exposure should include measures of sports-related concussion symptoms, which were more sensitive to objective cognitive performance than other football exposure measures, including self-reported diagnosed concussions.
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