Single Leg Hop Performance After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Ready for Landing but Cleared for Take-Off?

Context: Understanding former professional football players engagement with health promoting behaviors (physical exercise, high quality diet, and good sleep hygiene) will be helpful for developing lifestyle interventions to improve their feelings of well-being, a relatively understudied facet of health among this population.

Objective: Examine associations among health-promoting behaviors and subjective outcomes related to well-being among former National Football League (NFL) players.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Association of Alzheimer's disease polygenic risk score with concussion severity and recovery metrics.

Identification of genetic alleles associated with both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and concussion severity/recovery could help explain the association between concussion and elevated dementia risk. However, there has been little investigation into whether AD risk genes associate with concussion severity/recovery, and the limited findings are mixed. We used AD polygenic risk scores (PRS) and genotypes to investigate any such associations in the NCAA-DoD Grand Alliance CARE Consortium (CARE) dataset.

Longitudinal Characterization of Pain Interference and Influential Factors in Former National Football League (NFL) Players Over a 19-Year Period: An NFL-LONG Study.

Previous studies on pain experiences in retired contract sport athletes have been cross-sectional, leaving gaps in our understanding of the evolution of pain interference (PI) and factors that influence trajectories decades after sport discontinuation. This study investigated the longitudinal course of PI in former male National Football League (NFL) players over a 19-year period following sport discontinuation and examined factors influencing overall levels and trajectories of PI. Former NFL players completed health surveys in 2001, 2010, and 2019, with PI ratings measured using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (2001 and 2010) and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (2019).

Symptom Exacerbation and Adverse Events During a Randomized Trial of Early-Stage Rehabilitation After Sport-Related Concussion: Safety Outcomes From the Active Rehab Study.

Context: Authors of few studies have used randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to quantify clinical intervention safety of rehabilitation after sport-related concussion across sport levels.

Objective: Describe symptom exacerbation and adverse events (AEs) associated with two concussion rehabilitation interventions.

Design: Cluster RCT (NCT02988596).

White Matter Hyperintensities and Microstructural Alterations in Contact Sport Athletes from Adolescence to Early Midlife.

Studies have demonstrated associations between cumulative concussion and repetitive head impact exposure (RHI) through contact sports with white matter (WM) alterations later in life. The course of WM changes associated with exposure earlier in the lifespan is unclear. This study investigated alterations in white matter (WM hyperintensity [WMH] volume and microstructural changes) associated with concussion and RHI exposure from adolescence to early midlife, as well as the interaction between exposure and age cohort (i.

National Athletic Trainers' Association Bridge Statement: Management of Sport-Related Concussion.

Objective: To provide athletic trainers and team physicians with updated recommendations to the 2014 National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) concussion position statement regarding concussion management, specifically in the areas of education, assessment, prognostic factors, mental health, return to academics, physical activity, rest, treatment, and return to sport.

Background: Athletic trainers have benefited from the 2 previous NATA position statements on concussion management, and although the most recent NATA position statement is a decade old, knowledge gains in the medical literature warrant updating several (but not all) recommendations. Furthermore, in various areas of the body of literature, current evidence now exists to address items not adequately addressed in the 2014 statement, necessitating the new recommendations.

Plasma phosphorylated tau181 as a biomarker of mild traumatic brain injury: findings from THINC and NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium prospective cohorts.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate phosphorylated tau (p-tau181) protein in plasma in a cohort of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients and a cohort of concussed athletes.

Methods: This pilot study comprised two independent cohorts. The first cohort-part of a Traumatic Head Injury Neuroimaging Classification (THINC) study-with a mean age of 46 years was composed of uninjured controls (UIC, = 30) and mTBI patients ( = 288) recruited from the emergency department with clinical computed tomography (CT) and research magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings.

The Longitudinal Relationship Between Concussion History, Years of American Football Participation, and Alcohol Use Among Former National Football League Players: an NFL-LONG Study.

Objective: Investigate the relationships between concussion history and years of football participation (repetitive head impact proxy) with alcohol use across multiple decades in former professional football players.

Methods: Participants (n = 348; mean age = 49.0 ± 9.

Subjective and Performance-Based Cognition and Their Associations with Head Injury History in Older Former National Football League Players.

Purpose: Investigate the association between self-reported subjective and performance-based cognition among older (50-70 years) former professional American football players, as well as the relationship of cognitive measures with concussion history and years of football participation, as a proxy for repetitive head impact exposure.

Methods: Among older former National Football League (NFL) players ( N = 172; mean age = 60.69 ± 5.

Targeted interventions and their effect on recovery in children, adolescents and adults who have sustained a sport-related concussion: a systematic review.

Objectives: We evaluated interventions to facilitate recovery in children, adolescents and adults with a sport-related concussion (SRC).

Design: Systematic review including risk of bias (modified Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network tool).

Data Sources: MEDLINE(R) and Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, Embase, APA PsycINFO, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, SPORTDiscus and Scopus searched until March 2022.

Incorporation of concussion history as part of the LIfestyle for BRAin Health (LIBRA) modifiable factors risk score and associations with cognition in older former National Football League players.

Objective: Investigate associations between the LIfestyle for BRAin Health (LIBRA) risk score with odds of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) diagnosis and cognitive function, incorporating concussion history.

Methods: Former National Football League (NFL) players (N = 1050; mean age = 64.8 ± 9.

Joint Injury, Osteoarthritis, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Former National Football League Athletes: An NFL-LONG Study.

Context: Individuals with lower extremity osteoarthritis (OA) have a 25% greater risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than those without OA. The prevalence of traumatic joint injuries among National Football League (NFL) players exposes these athletes to an elevated risk for OA and potentially a greater risk of cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) and CVD.

Objectives: To examine the associations between a history of lower extremity joint injury, lower extremity OA, and the prevalence of CRFs and CVD among former NFL athletes.

Changes in resting state networks in high school football athletes across a single season.

Objective: The aim of this pilot cohort study was to examine changes in the organization of resting-state brain networks in high school football athletes and its relationship to exposure to on-field head impacts over the course of a single season.

Methods: Seventeen male high school football players underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging and computerized neurocognitive testing (CNS Vital Signs) before the start of contact practices and again after the conclusion of the season. The players were equipped with helmet accelerometer systems (Head Impact Telemetry System) to record head impacts in practices and games.

Relating American Football Age of First Exposure to Patient-Reported Outcomes and Medical Diagnoses Among Former National Football League Players: An NFL-LONG study.

Background: The age of first exposure (AFE) to American football participation is a growing concern for late-life function. Mixed evidence exists surrounding AFE and may be attributed to varied methods employed across studies.

Objective: To examine the associations between AFE to American football participation with measures of cognitive, behavioral, and physical function and brain-related medical diagnoses across age categories among former National Football League players.

Are EPB41 and alpha-synuclein diagnostic biomarkers of sport-related concussion? Findings from the NCAA and Department of Defense CARE Consortium.

Background: Current protein biomarkers are only moderately predictive at identifying individuals with mild traumatic brain injury or concussion. Therefore, more accurate diagnostic markers are needed for sport-related concussion.

Methods: This was a multicenter, prospective, case-control study of athletes who provided blood samples and were diagnosed with a concussion or were a matched non-concussed control within the National Collegiate Athletic Association-Department of Defense Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education Consortium conducted between 2015 and 2019.

Associations of lifetime concussion history and repetitive head impact exposure with resting-state functional connectivity in former collegiate American football players: An NCAA 15-year follow-up study.

The objective of this study was to examine associations of lifetime concussion history (CHx) and an advanced metric of lifetime repetitive head impact exposure with resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) across the whole-brain and among large-scale functional networks (Default Mode; Dorsal Attention; and Frontoparietal Control) in former collegiate football players. Individuals who completed at least one year of varsity collegiate football were eligible to participate in this observational cohort study (n = 48; aged 36-41 years; 79.2% white/Caucasian; 12.