The risk of football on the brain has hit the news a couple times recently by way of Chris Johnson’s ALS diagnosis and the NFL Neurodegenerative Mortality Study. I read through the full study and here are my thoughts:
NFL Neurodegenerative Mortality Study
ALS falls into the category of neurodegenerative diseases, which was the subject of a recently released study comparing NFL player deaths with non-NFL player deaths. Other diseases in the study’s neurodegenerative classification included dementia, Parkinson’s, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
The study had the following conclusions:
NFL players exhibited lower all-cause mortality (SMR = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.67–0.74) but higher neurodegenerative mortality (SMR = 3.94; 95% CI: 3.38–4.56).
Neurodegenerative mortality was nearly four times higher in NFL players compared to the general population and remained threefold higher after accounting for competing risks. Together, these findings strengthen the evidence for RHI (repetitive head impacts) exposure-related neurodegenerative mortality in NFL players that cannot be explained by differential survivorship.
Here is the link to the full study by Luster et al.
Here are some of my thoughts on the NFL neurodegenerative disease study:
The preceding was excerpted from my original story at JimmyLiaoMD.com. For the rest of my thoughts on the study along with Chris Johnson’s ALS diagnosis, visit my story at NFL Neurodegenerative Disease Study & Chris Johnson ALS.
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This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: NFL Medical News: Neurodegenerative Disease Mortality Study Results
Reporting by Jimmy Liao, MD, Lions Wire / Lions Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jimmy Liao, MD, Lions Wire | USA TODAY Network
