Am J Epidemiol. 2021 Jun 18:kwab177. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwab177. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
We examined the association between early-life participation in collision sports and later life cognitive health over a 28-year period in a population-based sample drawn from the longitudinal Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (1987-2014). Cognitive measures included the Mini-Mental State Examination and performance across multiple cognitive domains (e.g., global cognition, verbal ability, spatial ability, memory, processing speed). Among a sample of 660 adults (mean age at baseline 62.8 years [range: 50-88]; 58.2% female) who contributed 10,944 person-years of follow-up, there were 450 cases of cognitive impairment (crude rate: 41.1/1,000 person-years). Early-life participation in collision sports was not significantly associated with cognitive impairment at baseline nor its onset over a 28-year period in a time-to-event analysis which accounted for the semi-competing risk of death. Furthermore, growth curve models revealed no association between early-life participation in collision sports and the level of or change in trajectories of cognition across multiple domains overall nor in gender-stratified models. We discuss the long-term implications of adolescent participation in collision sports on cognitive health.
PMID:34142704 | DOI:10.1093/aje/kwab177
