Story at a glance
- New research has found that repeated head impacts in youth tackle football are not associated with cognitive or behavioral problems.
- Study participants with ADHD, anxiety and depression were more likely than others to score lower on tests assessing intelligence and memory.
- Previous studies have determined that young football players are more at risk of developing CTE, which is linked to repeated head traumas.
Repeated blows to the head in youth tackle football are not associated with cognitive or behavioral problems, new research suggests, and neurocognitive performance is instead more heavily influenced by medical diagnoses like anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
In a study published late last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, football players aged nine to 12 years old were tracked by researchers over four seasons, completing intelligence and memory tests before and after each season.
Researchers, after reviewing the data collected between July 2016 and January 2020, determined that repetitive head impacts were not associated with lower test scores. Still, the long-term effects of recurrent impacts are still largely unknown.
“It is reassuring that we are not seeing poor outcomes on cognitive or neurocognitive tests in childhood over the course of consecutive years of play, but we can’t fast forward to see what will happen 40 years after childhood contact sport exposure,” Sean Rose, one of the study’s authors, told USA Today.
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In the study, head impacts were measured using helmet-based sensors worn by participants during both practices and games. In all, there were 70 male participants, but only 18 of them completed four consecutive seasons of play.
Children with ADHD, anxiety and depression tended to score lower than their peers on pre- and post-season assessments, according to the study, suggesting further research is needed on the influence of premorbid conditions on cognitive or behavioral problems following head impacts.
“We need more research to see if there is a small subset of children who may be at risk for poor outcomes from head impacts,” Rose, also a pediatric neurologist and co-director of the Complex Concussion Clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, said.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released earlier this year found that youth on tackle football teams are 15 times more likely to suffer head injuries.
Another JAMA study in 2017 concluded that 21 percent of high school football players had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a progressive and fatal brain disease linked to repeated head traumas.
Professional football players have also weighed in on youth participation in tackle football, with many agreeing that children shouldn’t begin playing until at least their early teenage years.
Former NFL quarterback and Hall of Famer Brett Farve over the summer in a public service announcement pleaded with parents to keep children out of tackle football until they are at least 14 years old.
“Having kids play before high school is just not worth the risk,” he said in a statement. ”CTE is a terrible disease, and we need to do everything we can to prevent it for the next generation of football players.”
In 2018, several former NFL players teamed up with the Concussion Legacy Foundation to promote Flag Football Under 14, an education initiative advocating for no tackle football until the age of 14.
“I beg of you, all parents to please don’t let your children play football until high school,” former Miami Dolphins linebacker Nick Buoniconti, then 77, said.
“I made the mistake starting tackle football at 9 years old. Now, CTE has taken my life away. Youth tackle football is all risk with no reward,” he said.
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