Some specifics from the article: "Sean Morey, an Arizona Cardinals player who has been vocal in supporting research in this area, said: “This is about more than us — it’s about the high school kid in 2011 who might not die on the field because he ignored the risks of concussions.”"
"The Michigan researchers found that 6.1 percent of players age 50 and above reported that they had received a dementia-related diagnosis, five times higher than the cited national average, 1.2 percent. Players ages 30 through 49 showed a rate of 1.9 percent, or 19 times that of the national average, 0.1 percent." and "So the Michigan findings suggest that although 50 N.F.L. retirees would be expected to have dementia or memory-related disease, the actual number could be more like 300. This would not prove causation in any individual case, but it would support a connection between pro football careers and heightened prevalence of later-life cognitive decline that the league has long disputed." I'd be curious about the relative dementia incidence rates of former high school football and hockey players compared to the pro's and to the population in general. Were the increased dementia incidence cited in this (as yet unreviewed and unpublished) article due to injuries as pro's, or earlier high school injuries. I've read that concussion rates are higher in high school athletes than in pro's (less training, more blind aggression). Raises some interesting questions that ought to be answered -- I'm more concerned about hundreds of thousands of former high school footballers than a few thousand well compensated pro's. On Sep 30, 2009, at 7:08 PM, Joan Warmbold wrote: > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/sports/football/30dementia.html?em > > Amazing how long it has taken for a study to be conducted and > acknowledged > by the NFL that reveals the relationship between concussions and early > cognitive impairments of professional football players. Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato paul.bran...@mnsu.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
