Age of First Exposure to Contact and Collision Sports and Later in Life Brain Health: A Narrative Review.

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) d

SUBMITTER: Iverson GL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8511696 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature