Neuropsychological impairment in amateur soccer players

Context Soccer players incur concussions during matches and training sessio ns, as well as numerous subconcussive blows to the head from impacts with t he soccer ball (headers). The combination of soccer-related concussions and the number of headers may be a risk for chronic traumatic brain injury (CT BI). Objective To determine whether amateur soccer players have evidence of CTBI . Design, Setting, and Participants Cross-sectional study of 33 amateur socce r players and 27 amateur athletes involved in swimming and track (controls) in the Netherlands who underwent interviews and neuropsychological testing . Main Outcome Measures Performance of soccer players vs controls on 16 neuro psychological tests having 27 outcomes. Results Compared with control athletes, amateur soccer players exhibited im paired performance on tests of planning (39% vs 13%; P = .001) and memory ( 27% vs 7%; P = .004). Among soccer players, 9 (27%) had incurred 1 soccer-r elated concussion and 7 (23%) had had 2 to 5 concussions during their caree r. The number of concussions incurred in soccer was inversely related to th e neuropsychological performance on 6 of the neuropsychological tests. Conclusions Our results indicate that participation in amateur soccer in ge neral and concussion specifically is associated with impaired performance i n memory and planning functions. Due to the worldwide popularity of soccer, these observations may have important public health implications.