Abstract
The Football Players Health Study at Harvard University (FPHS) is a unique transdisciplinary, strategic initiative addressing the challenges of former players’ health after having participated in American style football (ASF). The whole player focused FPHS is designed to deepen understanding of the benefits and risks of participation in ASF, identify risks that are potentially reversible or preventable, and develop interventions or approaches to improve the health and wellbeing of former players. We are recruiting and following a cohort of former professional ASF players who played since 1960 (current n = 3785). At baseline, participants complete a self‐administered standardized questionnaire, including initial reporting of exposure history and physician‐diagnosed health conditions. Additional arms of the initiative are addressing targeted studies, including promising primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions; extensive in‐person clinical phenotyping, and legal and ethical concerns of the play. This paper describes the components of the FPHS studies undertaken and completed thus far, as well as those studies currently underway or planned for the near future. We present our initiatives herein as a potential paradigm of one way to proceed (acknowledging that it is not the only way). We share what we have learned so that it may be useful to others, particularly in regard to trying to make professional sports meet the needs of multiple stakeholders ranging from players to owners, to fans, and possibly even to parents making decisions for their children.
Highlights
Over the last 20 years, there has been increasing concern both about the acute injury effects as well as the long‐term consequences to athletes participating in high‐impact contact sports.[1]
Chronic or late‐onset significant morbidity associated with participation in high‐impact sports has become of increasing concern, as reports of significant neurodegenerative diseases occurring in former prominent athletes, related to those who played professional American style football (ASF), have made news in both the scientific as well as the lay press.[2]
This has the unfortunate effect of placing a burden on former players, potential players, and their families, as well as other stakeholders to make potentially lifestyle and health‐related decisions without adequate facts
Summary
Over the last 20 years, there has been increasing concern both about the acute injury effects as well as the long‐term consequences to athletes participating in high‐impact contact sports.[1]. Chronic or late‐onset significant morbidity associated with participation in high‐impact sports has become of increasing concern, as reports of significant neurodegenerative diseases occurring in former prominent athletes, related to those who played professional American style football (ASF), have made news in both the scientific as well as the lay press.[2] Other chronic conditions, including musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, sleep disorders and behavioral mental health conditions have been reported.[3,4] for the most part, the published literature falls short in providing sufficient data to make informed judgments to quantify the magnitude of the risks associated with ASF for any of these conditions This has the unfortunate effect of placing a burden on former players, potential players, and their families, as well as other stakeholders to make potentially lifestyle and health‐related decisions without adequate facts. It should be noted that this manuscript is designed to describe a strategic programmatic response to a research need and a series of studies under a large umbrella rather than a single study
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