A study that was commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.
The NFL has long since denied the accusations of concussions having an adverse effect on it’s players, and this study finally took a look at past retired players. These numbers would become the league’s first public affirmation of any connection, though the league pointed to limitations of this study.
These new findings could have dire consequences when it comes to the safety standards of the NFL, as youth football and college football take much of their safety guidelines from their “big brother”. Hundreds of on-field concussions are sustained at every level each week, with many going undiagnosed and untreated.
The study was conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, and it has been distributed to NFL officials this month. It has not yet been peer-reviewed, but the findings fall into step with several recent independent studies regarding N.F.L. players and the effects of their occupational head injuries.
Dr. Ira Casson, a co-chairman of the concussions committee who has been the league’s primary voice denying any evidence connecting N.F.L. football and dementia, said: “What I take from this report is there’s a need for further studies to see whether or not this finding is going to pan out, if it’s really there or not. I can see that the respondents believe they have been diagnosed. But the next step is to determine whether that is so.”
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.
Clearly, the NFL wants to cover its own back in all of this, denying this claims and conducting their own rigorous study of 120 retired players, with results expected within a few years. All neurological examinations are being conducted by Dr. Casson.
Kind of suspicious isn’t it? the fact that the NFL has always denied the existence of reliable data about cognitive decline among its players.
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The needs of the league is important, at times commissioners overlook the obvious. Your statements shed light on a ongoing problem.
By: gjmcrae on March 21, 2010
at 8:51 pm