Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The Football Players Health Study at Harvard University (FPHS) is a unique transdisciplinary, strategic initiative addressing the challenges of former players' health after having participated in American style football (ASF). The whole player focused FPHS is designed to deepen understanding of the benefits and risks of participation in ASF, identify risks that are potentially reversible or preventable, and develop interventions or approaches to improve the health and wellbeing of former players. We are recruiting and following a cohort of former professional ASF players who played since 1960 (current n = 3785). At baseline, participants complete a self-administered standardized questionnaire, including initial reporting of exposure history and physician-diagnosed health conditions. Additional arms of the initiative are addressing targeted studies, including promising primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions; extensive in-person clinical phenotyping, and legal and ethical concerns of the play. This paper describes the components of the FPHS studies undertaken and completed thus far, as well as those studies currently underway or planned for the near future. We present our initiatives herein as a potential paradigm of one way to proceed (acknowledging that it is not the only way). We share what we have learned so that it may be useful to others, particularly in regard to trying to make professional sports meet the needs of multiple stakeholders ranging from players to owners, to fans, and possibly even to parents making decisions for their children.
DOI: 10.1002/ajim.22991
Language: English
Subfield: Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,800
Funders: Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation, Harvard University, Harvard Catalyst, National Football League Players Association, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Center for Research Resources, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Medical Research and Materiel Command
Awards: G1003054342, Telerehabilitation for Patients with Stroke, The Development and Human Translation of Temporal Interference Brain Stimulation, G2496518617, G291422314, Reliability of Repetitive TMS-induced Modulation of Cortical Excitability, Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (UL1), Delirium, Dementia, and the Vulnerable Brain: An Integrative Approach, G3740841103, Micro-TMS Technology for Ultra-Focal Brain Stimulation, G4090096406, Brain Plasticity Measures in MCI, G4838214790, G4864384181, G5850682332, G674476967, Cortical Plasticity in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury, G8696555416, Pragmatic Trial of Remote tDCS and Somatosensory Training for Phantom Limb Pain with Machine Learning to Predict Treatment Response
OpenAlex ID: W2950035760