Quantifying and Examining Reserve in Symptomatic Former National Football League Players.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Repetitive head impacts (RHI) from contact sports have been associated with cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders. However, not all individuals exposed to RHI develop such disorders. This may be explained by the reserve hypothesis. It remains unclear if the reserve hypothesis accounts for the heterogenous symptom presentation in RHI-exposed individuals. Moreover, optimal measurement of reserve in this population is unclear and likely unique from non-athlete populations.

Objective

We examined the association between metrics of reserve and cognitive and neuropsychiatric functioning in 89 symptomatic former National Football League players.

Methods

Individual-level proxies (e.g., education) defined reserve. We additionally quantified reserve as remaining re

SUBMITTER: Foley EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8926024 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature