INTRODUCTION Understanding whether concussion in sport is associated with worsening cognitive function in later life will likely have immediate repercussion on sports concussion prevention and management policy and sporting rules and regulations. This systematic review aims to summarise the evidence on the association between concussion sustained by professional/elite athletes and long-term cognitive impairment. METHODS Embase, PubMed and Web of Science were used to search for eligible studies. Studies including professional/elite athletes from any sport were considered. Three comparison groups were considered: internal comparison (concussed vs non-concussed athletes within the same sample); between-sport comparison (contact sport athletes vs non-contact sports ones); external comparison (athletes vs samples of the general population or population norms). RESULTS 14 studies were included (rugby, American football, ice hockey players, boxers and marital art fighters). The general quality of the evidence was poor. The overall evidence, weighted for type of comparison and study quality, points towards an association between sustaining a sport-related concussion and poorer cognitive function later in life in rugby, American football and boxing, although it is unclear to what extent this is clinically relevant. Data on ice hockey and martial arts were too sparse to allow conclusions to be drawn. CONCLUSION High-quality, appropriately designed and powered epidemiological studies are urgently needed to assess the association between sustaining a sport-related concussion and cognitive impairment later in life. Particular emphasis should be put on the clinical translational value of findings.

中文翻译：

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专业或精英运动者的脑震荡和长期认知障碍：系统评价。

简介了解脑震荡是否与以后的认知功能恶化有关，可能会立即对脑震荡的预防和管理政策以及体育规则和法规产生影响。本系统综述旨在总结专业/精英运动员遭受的脑震荡与长期认知障碍之间的关联的证据。方法Embase，PubMed和Web of Science用于搜索符合条件的研究。研究包括来自任何运动项目的专业/精英运动员。考虑了三个比较组：内部比较（同一样本中的脑震荡运动员与非脑震荡运动员）；运动之间的比较（接触运动的运动员与非接触运动的运动员）；外部比较（运动员与一般人群样本或总体规范）。结果共纳入14项研究（橄榄球，美式足球，冰球运动员，拳击手和武术战斗机）。证据的总体质量很差。根据比较类型和研究质量加权的总体证据指出，在橄榄球，美式橄榄球和拳击比赛中，维持与运动有关的脑震荡与晚年生活中较弱的认知功能之间存在关联，尽管尚不清楚这在临床上的相关程度。关于冰球和武术的数据太稀疏，无法得出结论。结论迫切需要高质量，设计合理且功能强大的流行病学研究来评估维持与运动有关的脑震荡与晚年认知障碍之间的联系。