Former college athletes who experienced three or more concussions show significantly worse brain health five years after their playing careers, according to a study published in Neurology and announced on Mar. 12. The research focused on over 3,900 former collegiate athletes from 20 sports, most of whom played at National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I schools.
The findings matter because they highlight the impact of concussion history even in young adults, not just decades later. Co-lead author Adrian Boltz, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology and member of the Michigan Concussion Center, said that early detection allows for interventions such as promoting physical activity, healthy diet, mental health care and sleep habits. “Starting earlier provides a longer window to establish these habits and potentially mitigate any adverse trajectories,” Boltz said.
The study found that those with one or two concussions had slightly worse self-reported scores on physical, mental, behavioral and cognitive health measures compared to peers with no concussion history. However, most participants still scored within normal ranges for brain health. “What we found is that former college athletes with three or more concussions scored slightly worse on some health measures compared to former athletes with no concussion history,” Boltz said. He added that even this group did not typically cross into clinically concerning territory.
Boltz also noted that playing high-contact sports alone was not automatically associated with poorer outcomes; instead it was the number of concussions sustained that mattered most. “Most people might expect high-contact sport athletes to have worse health outcomes across the board, but the data tells a different story,” he said.
He emphasized that prevention and proper management of concussions are crucial across all sports: “The takeaway is not that we should be less concerned about high-contact sports, but rather that concussions are what we really need to be focused on preventing and improving recovery from.” The research was funded by the NCAA-Department of Defense Concussion Assessment Research and Education Consortium.
The University of Michigan Ann Arbor features sports teams called the Wolverines according to its official website. The university works to advance knowledge while cultivating leaders for Michigan and beyond according to its official website. It operates campuses in Ann Arbor—where its main campus is located—as well as Dearborn and Flint according to its official website. As a public research university offering diverse academic programs across many schools and colleges according to its official website, it continues developing as a prominent institution in higher education.
