Division III Collision Sports Are Not Associated with Neurobehavioral Quality of Life
Abstract
We sought to determine whether the exposure to the sub-concussive blows that occur during division III collegiate collision sports affect later life neurobehavioral quality-of-life measures. We conducted a cross-sectional study of alumni from four division III colleges, targeting those between the ages of 40–70 years, using several well-validated quality-of-life measures for executive function, general concerns, anxiety, depression, emotional and behavior dyscontrol, fatigue, positive affect, sleep disturbance, and negative consequences of alcohol use. We used multivariable linear regression to assess for associations between collision sport participation and quality-of-life measures while adjusting for covariates including age, gender, race, annual income, highest educational degree, college grades, exercise frequency, and common medical conditions. We obtained data from 3702 alumni, more than half of whom (2132) had participated in collegiate sports, 23% in collision sports, 23% in non-contact sports. Respondents with a history of concussion had worse self-reported health on several measures. When subjects with a history of concussion were removed from the analyses in order to assess for any potential effect of sub-concussive blows alone, negative consequences of alcohol use remained higher among collision sport athletes (β-coefficient 1.957, 95% CI 0.827-3.086). There were, however, no other significant associations between exposure to collision sports during college and any other quality-of-life measures. Our results suggest that, in the absence of a history of concussions, participation in collision sports at the Division III collegiate level is not a risk factor for worse long-term neurobehavioral outcomes, despite exposure to repeated sub-concussive blows.
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Information & Authors
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Copyright 2016, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
History
Published in print: January 15, 2016
Published online: 11 January 2016
Published ahead of print: 20 July 2015
Published ahead of production: 28 May 2015
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Author Disclosure Statement
This study was funded, in part, by a grant from the National Football League Players Association (Meehan and Pascual-Leone). Dr. Pascual-Leone is also supported, in part, by grants from the Sidney R. Baer Jr. Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (R01HD069776, R01NS073601, R21 MH099196, R21 NS082870, R21 NS085491, R21 HD07616), and Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (NCRR and the NCATS NIH, UL1 RR025758). All funding sources provided salary support only; the content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Harvard Catalyst, Harvard University and its affiliated academic health care centers, the National Institutes of Health, the National Football League Players Association, or the Sidney R. Baer Jr. Foundation. None of the funding sources reviewed the data or manuscript. None were involved in data collection, analysis, interpretation, design, or recruitment.
Dr. Meehan receives royalties from ABC-Clio publishing for the sale of his book, Kids, Sports, and Concussion: A Guide for Coaches and Parents and royalties from Wolters Kluwer for working as an author for UpToDate. His research is funded, in part, by a grant from the National Football League Players Association and by philanthropic support from the National Hockey League Alumni Association through the Corey C. Griffin Pro-Am Tournament. Dr. Pascual-Leone serves on the scientific advisory boards for Nexstim, Neuronix, Starlab Neuroscience, Neuroelectrics, Axilum Robotics, Magstim Inc., and Neosync, and is listed as an inventor on several issued and pending patents on the real-time integration of transcranial magnetic stimulation with electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging.
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