Factors Influencing College Football Players' Beliefs About Incurring Football-Related Dementia.

BACKGROUND

Football participation is associated with risks to acute and long-term health, including the possibility of incurring football-related dementia. Concerns have been raised regarding media coverage of these risks, which may have influenced athletes' beliefs. However, little is known about football players' views on football-related dementia. The risk-perception literature suggests that related risk perceptions and features of individual cognition, such as the ability to switch to reasoned, deliberative thinking, may influence individual perception of a long-term risk.

PURPOSE

To evaluate factors influencing college football players' belief that they are likely to incur football-related dementia in the future.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Members of 4 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Power 5 Football teams participated in this survey-based study, providing responses to demographic, athletic, and risk-posture questions, and completed the cognitive reflection test. Logistic regressions were used to evaluate relationships between beliefs about football-related dementia and factors including athletic and demographic characteristics, football risk posture, health-risk posture, and cognitive reflection test score.

RESULTS

About 10% of the 296 participating athletes thought football-related dementia was likely to occur in their future. Skill players had lower odds than linemen of believing that football-related dementia was likely (odds ratio [OR], 0.35; 95% CI, 0.14-0.89). For each additional suspected concussion in an athlete's career, his odds of believing football-related dementia was likely increased by 24% (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.07-1.45). Acute and chronic football-related risk perceptions, as well as non-football-related health-risk perceptions, were positively associated with athletes' belief that football-related dementia was likely. Higher cognitive reflection test scores, a measure of ability to switch to slow, deliberative thinking, was positively associated with odds of believing football-related dementia was likely (OR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.12-2.21).

CONCLUSION

Some athletes view football as generally riskier, while others view football as generally lessri sky. These risk postures are informed by athletes' concussion history, primary playing position, and ability to switch from fast, reactive thinking to slow, deliberative thinking. Ensuring that athletes are appropriately informed of the risks of participation is an ethical obligation of universities; sports medicine clinicians are appropriate facilitators of conversations about athletes' health risks.

Informations de copyright

© The Author(s) 2021.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

One or more of the authors has declared the following potential conflict of interest or source of funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (award No. T32MH019733). This work was also conducted with the support of the Football Players Health Study at Harvard; the Football Players Health Study is funded by a grant from the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University or its affiliates, or the NFLPA. E.K. is a paid consultant of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, contributing to health education program development, and has received funding through the Pac-12 Conference. AOSSM checks author disclosures against the Open Payments Database (OPD). AOSSM has not conducted an independent investigation on the OPD and disclaims any liability or responsibility relating thereto.