Associations Between Cumulative Head Trauma and Self-Reported Parkinsonism and Parkinson's Disease in Former Soccer Players - PubMed
5 hours ago
- #head-trauma
- #soccer
- #parkinsons-disease
- Cumulative head trauma (repetitive head impacts and traumatic brain injury) is linked to higher risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) and earlier onset.
- Soccer players with a history of traumatic brain injury involving loss of consciousness had 2.6 times higher odds of PD compared to athletes in non-contact/collision sports without TBI.
- The combination of repetitive head impacts from soccer and traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness increased the hazard of early PD diagnosis by 15.6%.
- The study included 1,231 participants from the Fox Insight study, with 62% reporting a PD diagnosis at an average age of 59.
- Findings suggest that assessing cumulative head trauma may better predict PD risk than evaluating repetitive head impacts or traumatic brain injury in isolation.