A-128 Age of First Exposure to Football is not Associated with Midlife Brain Health Problems

Abstract

Abstract Objective This study examined if earlier age of first exposure (AFE) to football is associated with worse brain health in middle-aged men who played high school football. Method Using an online crowdsourcing platform, we recruited 123 men ages 35–55 who played high school football. Participants completed self-report measures that assessed (i) demographic information; (ii) medical history, sport participation, and concussion history; (iii) current depression symptomatology (i.e., Patient Health Questionnaire-8; PHQ-8); and (iv) current concussion-like symptoms (i.e., the British Columbia Post-Concussion Symptom Inventory; BC-PSI). Approximately half (n = 62; 50.4%) reported football participation starting before the age of 12 (AFE12 years). The two groups were compared using chi-squared and Mann–Whitney U-Tests. Results Former high school football players who began playing football before age 12 did not differ in the rates at which they had been prescribed medications for psychological problems or in the rates at which they had recently experienced symptoms of anxiety, depression, memory loss, chronic pain, or headaches compared with former high school football players who began playing football at or after age 12. Additionally, there were no group differences in lifetime history of treatment by a mental health professional (χ2 = 0.20, p = .66) or regarding the PHQ-8 (U = 1,839.0, p = .791) or BC-PSI total scores (U = 1828.5, p = .751). Conclusion These findings suggest that earlier AFE to football is not associated with worse brain health in middle-aged men in this sample who played high school football.