An Exploratory Study of Mild Cognitive Impairment of Retired Professional Contact Sport Athletes.
John G Baker, John J Leddy, Andrea L Hinds and 7 others
PMID 30080798WHAT IT FOUND
Retired contact sport athletes did not have significantly more mild cognitive impairment than non-contact athletes: 38% versus 14%.
Lower estimated IQ, vascular risks, and depression may explain cognitive complaints.
Key findings
01Contact sport athletes met MCI criteria more often than controls (38% versus 14%), but the difference did not reach significance (p=0.083).
02Contact athletes had lower estimated IQ (p<0.001), and after IQ adjustment only letter fluency (p=0.01) and List B immediate recall (p=0.03) differed.
03Contact athletes had higher BMI (p<0.001) and more reported vascular risk factors (p=0.005), higher BDI raw scores (p=0.04), but depression category difference was not significant (p=0.078).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, with 21 contact athletes and 21 controls, and the authors say the results need replication. Concussion exposure was not known with confidence, and years played did not account for concussive or sub-concussive hits or earlier contact exposure. The control group was healthier, more physically active, more educated, and had higher estimated IQ, which may make the groups hard to compare. The contact athletes were recruited partly because they believed early dementia had started or was about to start, so they may not represent all retired contact sport athletes. One contact athlete was 36 years old, so ASCVD risk could not be calculated for him.
Declared interests
The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research funding. Robert Zivadinov reported personal compensation from EMD Serono, Novartis, Celgene, Genentech, Claret Medical, and Sanofi-Genzyme for speaking and consultant fees, and research support from Biogen Idec, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi-Genzyme, Novartis, Claret Medical, and Coherus-Intekrin. Other investigators reported no conflicts.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that retired contact sport athletes have significantly more MCI than non-contact athletes. The rate was 38% versus 14% and did not reach significance (p=0.083). Also, the study did not know each athlete's concussion exposure, so it cannot show that head impacts caused any observed cognitive differences.