| The concussion rate among professional football players in the NFL is higher than most sports, with a rate of 0.41 concussions per NFL game. Moreover, a player receives an estimated 900 to 1500 subconcussive impacts each season. Repetitive head trauma can lead to significant and permanent declines in functioning, including cognitive impairment, memory loss, movement disorders, and emotional disturbances. Given the cognitive implications associated with repetitive concussions/subconcussive impacts, many retired NFL players are pursuing worker's compensation evaluations which include comprehensive neurocognitive assessment. To date, however, population-specific norms for applicable neurocognitive assessment measures have not been established. Using archived data, this study explores the appropriateness of currently utilized, population-based norms when assessing individuals from this population. Ninety-seven retired NFL players were assessed as part of a worker's compensation evaluation. Means and standard deviations for several neurocognitive measures are presented and contrasted against established, general population norms. One-way multivariate and univariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs and ANOVAs, respectively) were used to examine differences between various levels of athletic exposure on all neuropsychological measures. Various levels of AE were compared to existing general population norms on all neuropsychological outcome variables using Cohen's d and Hedge's g. Overall, findings do not evidence expected cognitive declines, however, other trends not reaching statistical significance emerged. Given discrepancies on select neuropsychological measures, general population norms may be of limited use when interpreting neurocognitive data of retired NFL players. Neuropsychologists serving this population should consider the role of biological, psychosocial, social, and alternative etiological factors when determining diagnostic impressions and treatment recommendations. |
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