Kids who play football before age 12 have more brain problems as adults

Here we go. Boston University was the lead institution in a multi-center study that looked at what happens to kids who began playing football before the age of 12 and those who began playing after the age of 12.

News Flash

Kids who began playing football before age of 12 have long term brain problems into adulthood.

Let's dive deeper. The medical team looked at two groups. Individuals who first played football before age 12 and those who first played football after age 12. This was termed Age at First Exposure or AFE. All these individuals were now age 45 and older at the time of the study. The first question was - 'at what age did you first began playing football?'. The study looked at current cognitive level, depression level, behavioral index, and apathy score. 

Here's the skinny. The adults that began playing football, (AFE), before 12 years of age had worse cognitive scores, increased rates of depression, worse incidences of behavior control, and more episodes of general detachment from life (apathy). 

A natural consideration would be to consider the adults who score worse or had more mental and brain problems probably played other sports. NO. This study just looked at football players as the primary sport.

Maybe these adults players were involved in football longer and went on to play college football and / or the NFL. So that's why they had poor outcomes. NO. This study suggests that the number of years the person played had nothing to do with the outcomes. Let's not miss this, if a kid plays football starting at 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11 years old for only 1 year or go for another 20 years - YOU HAVE THE SAME OUTCOME. A brain that does not work well as an adult. 

Then it has to be the folks who began playing football after 12 years of age had less concussions. Makes sense - but NO. This study suggests that a number of the adults whose AFE was before age 12 did not have a higher level of concussions. I can hear the next question, 'so Doc, what does that mean?'. Well, while the number of total concussions does not matter, it seems the number of sub-concussive hits does matter. It is suspected that these small little hits add up to a big deal.

The adults who had higher brain disorders also had a greater tendency to have brain issues even if they did not play football. NO. A statistical analysis to separate individuals with a risk for learning disability was performed. This analysis confirms the original findings. An AFE before 12 leads to much worse brain problems as an adult. 

So let me say this a different way. Kids who began playing football before age 12 are at a greater than 2 times increased odds for medically significant impairments in behavioral responses, apathy, and executive function. This same group is at a greater than 3 times increased odds for medically significant elevation in depression scores. These findings were independent of age, education and length of time playing football. 

Worse - the younger the individual was when they started the more devastating the behavioral regulation, depression levels, apathy scores and executive function findings. The odds for clinical depression and apathy is increased. No matter at what level of play the child stops playing the effects will persist. 

The NFL recently funded a study that looked at the relationship between years of youth football participation and the effects on the brain in 45 former NFL players, and those authors determined there was no relationship. This study challenges that conclusion. 

So you can play American football before the age of 12, not have a single concussion your entire sports life and still end up with a broken brain. Go figure.