New Study Links Playing Youth Football to Later Brain Damage

If children play tackle football before they are 12 and continue to play through high school, they may be putting their brains at risk. That’s the key takeaway from a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature’s Translational Psychiatry. Researchers from Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center studied 214 former football players, including 43 who only played at the high school level, 103 who played in college, and 68 who played professionally. The scientists found that playing tackle football before the age of 12 increased the odds of problems with behavioral regulation, apathy and executive functioning later in life by twofold, and the odds of suffering symptoms of depression threefold. (The mean age of study participants was 51). The results held steady for players with different levels of experience. Even for those who didn’t stick with football after high school, playing tackle before the age of 12 increased their risk of behavior and mood problems as adults. “We found that to be pretty remarkable,” says Michael Alosco, a post-doctoral fellow at the Boston University School of Medicine, and lead author of the study. Read More: How Kids’ Sports Became a $15 Billion Industry There is a risk of self-selection bias in the study: ex-football players may have chosen to participate in the study in order to report their neurobehavioral issues. The authors also recognize the health and social benefits of partici...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Boston University Brain Damage CTE Football head trauma NFL Youth Football youth sports Source Type: news