ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2020
Neurocognitive performance and mental health of retired female football players compared to non-contact sport athletes.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive Effects of Heading in Professional Football: A Systematic Review.International journal of sports medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Daytime Napping Benefits Passing Performance and Scanning Activity in Elite Soccer Players.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2023Trial
- Cognitive and Behavioral Functioning in Female Former Soccer Players: Results from the Head Impact and Trauma Surveillance Study (HITSS).Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Non-concussive impacts, cognition, and the menstrual cycle: a proof-of-concept study of elite female footballers.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Sex, but not exposure-related variables, predicts baseline serum glial fibrillar acidic protein and neurofilament light levels in contact sport athletes.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2026Article
- The Relationship Between Neurocognitive Function and Concussion in Women Professional Football Players: A Cross-Sectional Study.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Exploring the Association BetweenGenes · 2025Article
- Brain health in Norwegian female former top-level football players: a protocol for a longitudinal cohort study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Article
- A prospective investigation of the effects of soccer heading on cognitive and sensorimotor performances in semi-professional female players.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- Self-reported reproductive health of retired elite women's footballers: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2024Article
- Prevalence of anxiety and depression in former elite athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2024Article
- Health conditions among retired professional footballers: a scoping review.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAdverse long-term effects of playing football due to repetitive head impact exposure on neurocognition and mental health are controversial. To date, no studies have evaluated such effects in women.
aimsTo (1) compare neurocognitive performance, cognitive symptoms and mental health in retired elite female football players (FB) with retired elite female non-contact sport athletes (CON), and to (2) assess whether findings are related to history of concussion and/or heading exposure in FB.
methodsNeurocognitive performance, mental health and cognitive symptoms were assessed using computerised tests (CNS-vital signs), paper pen tests (Category fluency, Trail-Making Test, Digit Span, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test), questionnaires (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, SF-36v2 Health Survey) and a symptom checklist. Heading exposure and concussion history were self-reported in an online survey and in a clinical interview, respectively. Linear regression was used to analyse the effect of football, concussion and heading exposure on outcomes adjusted for confounders.
resultsFB (n=66) performed similar to CON (n=45) on neurocognitive tests, except for significantly lower scores on verbal memory (mean difference (MD)=-7.038, 95% CI -12.98 to -0.08, p=0.038) and verbal fluency tests (MD=-7.534, 95% CI -13.75 to -0.46, p=0.016). Among FB weaker verbal fluency performance was significantly associated with ≥2 concussions (MD=-10.36, 95% CI -18.48 to -2.83, p=0.017), and weaker verbal memory performance with frequent heading (MD=-9.166, 95% CI -17.59 to -0.123, p=0.041). The depression score differed significantly between study populations, and was significantly associated with frequent heading but not with history of concussion in FB.
conclusionFurther studies should investigate the clinical relevance of our findings and whether the observed associations point to a causal link between repetitive head impacts and verbal memory/fluency or mental health.
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