Boston University finds links between brain disorders and football in older former Notre Dame players

By Henry Petrini. This article was initially published in our Concussion Update newsletter; please consider subscribing.

Researchers at the Boston University CTE center have published a study in JAMA Network Open focusing on later-life brain disorders. Alyssa Phelps et al. found that former college football players are at “increased risk for degenerative brain diseases,” and reported cognitive impairment diagnoses, recurrent headaches, and cardiovascular disease at higher rates than an age-matched control group. In a Boston Globe article, Robert Stern, director of clinical research at the Boston University CTE center, states that this was an important group to study because the age range of 59 to 75 is “very appropriate for studying the prevalence of age-related diseases and disorders.” 

The study subject group included 693 players from the 1964-1980 Notre Dame football team, 477 of whom had postmortem data collected about their conditions and 216 of whom were alive at the time of the study. 

The former players in the study were five times as likely to report diagnoses of cognitive impairment, two and a half times more likely to report periodic headaches, and sixty-five percent more likely to have cardiovascular disorders when compared with a general sample population of men of the same age group. Overall, the study showed mortality rates due to “brain and other nervous system cancers” to be about four times higher in former players than in the general population. 

Mortality rates due to the neurodegenerative diseases Parkinson’s and ALS, on the other hand, were higher in the studied former players than in the general public but not high enough to be of statistical significance. The study also found an “overall lower mortality rate and lower prevalence of diabetes” than the general population. Mortality rates from heart and vascular diseases were lower among former players than in the general population. 

Stern cautions that “people should not overreact” to the study, as there is a need for more studies concerning the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases in former football players. Stern does suggest that, at the moment, the scientific and football community should raise awareness among the athletic community about improving brain health.