ReviewFrontiers in neurology2021
Age of First Exposure to Contact and Collision Sports and Later in Life Brain Health: A Narrative Review.
Review in Frontiers in neurology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Nandrolone Abuse Prior to Head Trauma Mitigates Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, Mitochondrial Bioenergetic Deficits, and Markers of Neurodegeneration.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Epidemiological Principles in Claims of Causality: An Enquiry into Repetitive Head Impacts (RHI) and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Review
- Age of First Exposure Does Not Relate to Post-Career Health in Former Professional American-Style Football Players.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Article
- Contact or Collision Sport History, Repetitive Neurotrauma, and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Early to Midadulthood.Journal of athletic training · 2023Article
- Efficacy of Guardian Cap Soft-Shell Padding on Head Impact Kinematics in American Football: Pilot Findings.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Effects of contact/collision sport history on gait in early- to mid-adulthood.Journal of sport and health science · 2023Article
- Examining for Cavum Septum Pellucidum and Ventricular Enlargement in Retired Elite-Level Rugby League Players.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Football and Dementia: Understanding the Link.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A controversial theory proposes that playing tackle football before the age of 12 causes later in life brain health problems. This theory arose from a small study of 42 retired National Football League (NFL) players, which reported that those who started playing tackle football at a younger age performed worse on selected neuropsychological tests and a word reading test. The authors concluded that these differences were likely due to greater exposure to repetitive neurotrauma during a developmentally sensitive maturational period in their lives. Several subsequent studies of current high school and collegiate contact/collision sports athletes, and former high school, collegiate, and professional tackle football players have not replicated these findings. This narrative review aims to (i) discuss the fundamental concepts, issues, and controversies surrounding existing research on age of first exposure (AFE) to contact/collision sport, and (ii) provide a balanced interpretation, including risk of bias assessment findings, of this body of evidence. Among 21 studies, 11 studies examined former athletes, 8 studies examined current athletes, and 2 studies examined both former and current athletes. Although the literature on whether younger AFE to tackle football is associated with later in life cognitive, neurobehavioral, or mental health problems in former NFL players is mixed, the largest study of retired NFL players (
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.