Charney Molly F, Ye Kenny Q, Fleysher Roman, DeMessie Bluyé, Stewart Walter F, Zimmerman Molly E, Kim Mimi, Lipton Richard B, Lipton Michael L
Gruss Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States.
Department of Radiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States.
Front Neurol. 2023 Feb 9;14:1042707. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1042707. eCollection 2023.
The objective of this study is to assess the role of age at first exposure (AFE) to soccer heading as a predictor of known adverse associations of recent and longer-term heading with brain microstructure, cognitive, and behavioral features among adult amateur soccer players.
The sample included 276 active amateur soccer players (196 male and 81 female) aged 18-53 years old. AFE to soccer heading was treated as a binary variable, dichotomized at ≤ 10 years vs. >10 years old, based on a recently promulgated US Soccer policy, which bans heading for athletes ages 10 and under.
We found that soccer players who began heading at age 10 or younger performed better on tests of working memory ( = 0.03) and verbal learning ( = 0.02), while accounting for duration of heading exposure, education, sex, and verbal intelligence. No difference in brain microstructure or behavioral measures was observed between the two exposure groups.
The findings indicate that, among adult amateur soccer players, AFE to heading before age 10 compared to later start of heading, is not associated with adverse outcomes, and may be associated with better cognitive performance in young adulthood. Cumulative heading exposure across the lifespan, rather than early life exposure, may drive risk for adverse effects and should be the focus of future longitudinal studies to inform approaches to enhance player safety.
本研究的目的是评估首次接触足球头球时的年龄（AFE）作为成年业余足球运动员近期和长期头球与脑微结构、认知及行为特征之间已知不良关联的预测指标的作用。
样本包括276名年龄在18 - 53岁之间的现役业余足球运动员（196名男性和81名女性）。根据美国足球最近颁布的一项政策，该政策禁止10岁及以下的运动员进行头球，将首次接触足球头球的年龄视为一个二元变量，分为≤10岁和>10岁两组。
我们发现，在考虑头球接触时长、教育程度、性别和语言智力的情况下，10岁及以下开始头球的足球运动员在工作记忆测试（= 0.03）和语言学习测试（= 0.02）中表现更好。在两个接触组之间，未观察到脑微结构或行为指标的差异。
研究结果表明，在成年业余足球运动员中，10岁之前开始头球与之后开始头球相比，与不良后果无关，且可能与年轻成年期更好的认知表现有关。一生中累积的头球接触，而非早年接触，可能会带来不良影响的风险，应成为未来纵向研究的重点，以指导提高运动员安全性的方法。
