ArticleTranslational psychiatry2017
Age of first exposure to American football and long-term neuropsychiatric and cognitive outcomes.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 193 citations in OpenAlex.
- A global collaboration to study intimate partner violence-related head trauma: The ENIGMA consortium IPV working group.Brain imaging and behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Advanced biomarkers of pediatric mild traumatic brain injury: Progress and perils.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Regional ventricular enlargement as an in vivo biomarker of cumulative biomechanical neurodegeneration in former American football players.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Younger Age of First Exposure to American Football Is Associated with Worse Informant-Reported Clinical Outcomes in Older Age Brain Donors.Journal of neurotrauma · 2026Article
- Instrumented Mouthguards in Women's Rugby League: Quantifying the Incidence and Probability of Head Acceleration Events at Group and Individual Levels.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Demographic and Football-Related Characteristics Associated with Objective Cognitive Performance in Former NFL Players with a Normative Sample Comparison: An NFL-LONG Study.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Effects of One Season of Rugby on the Neurological Integrity of Male Adolescent Players.Sports medicine - open · 2026Article
- Cognitive and Neuropsychiatric Function in Former American Football Players.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Dose-dependent white matter changes associated with repetitive head impacts in former American football players.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Single- versus two-test criteria for cognitive impairment: associations with CSF and imaging markers in former American football players.The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2025Article
- Instrumented Mouthguards in Men's Rugby League: Quantifying the Incidence and Probability of Head Acceleration Events at a Group and Individual Level.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Article
- The Association Between Age of First Exposure to American Football at a Young Age and Later-Life Health Issues in Healthy, Community-Dwelling Adults.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Article
- Delaying Tackling in Youth Contact Sports: Moving toward a Safer Future or Softening the Game?Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Article
- Correlating Magnetoencephalography, Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging, Biomechanics, and Neuropsychology in American Youth Football.Journal of neurotrauma · 2025Article
- Comparison of Instrumented Mouthguard Post-Processing Methods.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Detecting and Salvaging Head Impacts with Decoupling Artifacts from Instrumented Mouthguards.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Health outcomes of former division I college athletes.Brain injury · 2025Article
- Characterizing Neurobehavioral Dysregulation Among Former American Football Players: Findings From the DIAGNOSE CTE Research Project.The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2025Article
- Sulcal morphology in former American football players.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Shape analysis of the amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus in former American football players.Brain communications · 2025Article
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
21 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Previous research suggests that age of first exposure (AFE) to football before age 12 may have long-term clinical implications; however, this relationship has only been examined in small samples of former professional football players. We examined the association between AFE to football and behavior, mood and cognition in a large cohort of former amateur and professional football players. The sample included 214 former football players without other contact sport history. Participants completed the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT), and self-reported measures of executive function and behavioral regulation (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version Metacognition Index (MI), Behavioral Regulation Index (BRI)), depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)) and apathy (Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES)). Outcomes were continuous and dichotomized as clinically impaired. AFE was dichotomized into <12 and ⩾12, and examined continuously. Multivariate mixed-effect regressions controlling for age, education and duration of play showed AFE to football before age 12 corresponded with >2 × increased odds for clinically impaired scores on all measures but BTACT: (odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI): BRI, 2.16,1.19-3.91; MI, 2.10,1.17-3.76; CES-D, 3.08,1.65-5.76; AES, 2.39,1.32-4.32). Younger AFE predicted increased odds for clinical impairment on the AES (OR, 95% CI: 0.86, 0.76-0.97) and CES-D (OR, 95% CI: 0.85, 0.74-0.97). There was no interaction between AFE and highest level of play. Younger AFE to football, before age 12 in particular, was associated with increased odds for impairment in self-reported neuropsychiatric and executive function in 214 former American football players. Longitudinal studies will inform youth football policy and safety decisions.
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Registered trials
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