Background

Collegiate football players who started playing tackle football before age 12 years did not show worse neuropsychological test performance than those who started playing tackle football after age 12 years. It is unknown if beginning other contact sports, such as lacrosse, at a younger age is associated with worse neurocognitive performance, greater psychological distress, or worse postural stability in collegiate student athletes.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between estimated age of first exposure (eAFE) to repetitive head impacts (RHI) and these outcome measures in collegiate student athletes.

Methods

1891 female and 4448 male collision/contact (i.e., football, ice hockey, lacrosse, wrestling, soccer) and non-contact (i.e., golf, rifle, rowing/crew, swimming, tennis) sport athletes completed baseline testing, including the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT), Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI-18), and Balance Error Scoring System (BESS).

Results

For women, the eAFE-by-sport interaction was associated with ImPACT Verbal Memory and Visual Memory, whereby earlier eAFE to contact sports was associated with higher composite scores (B = − 0.397, B = − 0.485, respectively). For men, the eAFE-by-sport interaction was associated with BSI-18 Depression and Global Severity Index and symptom severity scores, whereby earlier eAFE to football was associated with lower psychological distress and symptom severity [Depression, Exp(B) = 1.057; Global Severity Index, Exp(B) = 1.047; Symptom Severity, Exp(B) = 1.046]. Parameter estimates were small suggesting these results may have minimal practical relevance.

Conclusion

Findings suggest that RHI during early adolescence is unrelated to brain health as measured by these specific outcome measures in collegiate student athletes.

中文翻译：

---

健康的NCAA大学运动员的首次接触接触运动以及神经认知，心理和身体活动的估计年龄：一项队列研究。

背景

在12岁之前开始踢足球的大学生足球运动员的神经心理学测试表现并不比在12岁之后开始踢足球的大学生的神经心理学测试成绩差。尚不知道年轻时开始其他接触运动（例如曲棍球）是否会导致大学学生运动员的神经认知能力下降，心理困扰加剧或姿势稳定性下降。

目的

这项研究的目的是检查大学生运动员首次接触的估计年龄（eAFE）与重复性头部撞击（RHI）的相关性与这些结果指标之间的关系。

方法

1891名女性和4448名男性的碰撞/接触（例如，足球，冰球，曲棍网兜球，摔跤，足球）和非接触（例如，高尔夫，步枪，划船/船员，游泳，网球）完成了基线测试，包括即时脑震荡后评估和认知测试（ImPACT），简要症状清单18（BSI-18）和平衡误差评分系统（BESS）。

结果

对于女性而言，运动型eAFE互动与ImPACT口头记忆和视觉记忆相关，因此，早期接触运动的eAFE与较高的综合得分相关（分别为B  = − 0.397，B  = − 0.485）。对于男性，eAFE逐项运动的互动与BSI-18抑郁症和全球严重程度指数以及症状严重程度评分相关，而较早的eAFE足球比赛与较低的心理困扰和症状严重程度相关[抑郁症，Exp（B）= 1.057; 全球严重程度指数，Exp（B）= 1.047；症状严重程度，Exp（B）= 1.046]。参数估计很小，表明这些结果可能与实际相关性最小。

结论

研究结果表明，在大学学生运动员中，通过这些特定的结局指标来衡量，青春期早期的RHI与大脑健康无关。