A-40 Age, Head-Injury Exposure, And Neurocognitive Functioning Among Older NFL Retirees

Abstract Purpose: Prior research suggests that head-injury exposure (HIE) may interact with age to reduce neurocognitive functioning in former football players, though it remains unclear if other variables may play a role. As such, we evaluated this interaction in older NFL retirees with and without potential covariates. Methods: Participants included 48 older NFL retirees (aged 50–79, M = 65, SD = 7.6). Twenty-seven were cognitively normal, 21 had mild cognitive impairment, and 5 had dementia. HIE variables included number of concussions (Range = 0–18, M = 5.6, SD = 4.5), concussions with loss of consciousness (Range = 0–13, M = 2.2, SD = 2.4), and NFL games played (Range = 15–224, M = 115.1, SD = 50.1). Composite normative T-scores of executive functioning/attention/speed (EFAS; Range = 31.3–62.9, M = 49.6, SD = 6.9), language (Range = 32.4–64.2, M = 47.3, SD = 7.6), and memory (Range = 26.9–65.8, M = 44.5, SD = 9.4) were derived from neuropsychological data. Multiple regressions [p-value at 0.05 with bootstrapping (2000 iterations)] analyzed the relationship between age, HIE, and neuropsychological composites. Post-hoc analyses were conducted with additional covariates: depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II), cerebrovascular risk factors, and cognitive diagnosis. Results: Age (t = −2.394, p = 0.021) and games played (t = −2.311, p = 0.018) predicted lower memory functioning. An interaction between age and concussions (t = −2.199, p = 0.033) suggested that older retirees with more concussions had a lower EFAS composite. However, results were not significant when including covariates in the model (p’s > 0.05). Conclusions: HIE was not significantly related to later-in-life neurocognitive functioning in older NFL retirees when accounting for depressive symptoms, cognitive diagnosis, and cerebrovascular risk factors, highlighting the importance of including additional factors known to impact cognition when assessing this relationship. Findings regarding cumulative HIE and cognition are mixed, and additional study is needed.