Season-long head acceleration exposure, prior contact-sport history, and cognitive performance in British amateur American football players
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background Head acceleration events (HAEs) are common in contact sports, but season-long exposure and its relationship with cognitive performance in amateur British American football remain poorly characterised. Methods Thirty male players were recruited from three British amateur American football teams. Selected Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 6 (SCAT6) components and computerised tasks were assessed across the season. Seasonal analyses included 20 participants, and exposure-linked analyses included 17. Helmet-sensor events were attributed to participants and restricted to participant-assignment and baseline-to-post-season calendar windows. Mixed-effects models assessed seasonal outcomes. Principal component analysis (PCA) summarised standardised baseline-to-post-season changes, and six exposure associations were evaluated. Results Players recorded a mean of 768 (SD 482) events. Several individual tests improved across the season. The first principal component (PC1) explained 21.9% of change variance and had loadings with opposing signs. Prior seasons had a nominal association with PC1 (slope −0.153, 95% CI −0.305 to −0.00018; r 2 =0.233; p=0.0498), which did not survive six-test Benjamini–Hochberg (BH) adjustment (p=0.299). No in-season exposure association survived adjustment. Conclusion Repeated-test performance improved, while exposure associations remained uncertain. The mixed PC1 pattern cannot be interpreted as a uniform measure of global cognitive worsening or improvement.
Institution: University of Exeter
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220865591