Skip to main content

Long-Term Cognitive Benefits of Sports Outweigh Concussion Risks

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Sep 6, 2024.

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Sept. 6, 2024 -- Sports concussions in older nonprofessional athletes are not linked to any negative long-term cognitive effects, according to a study published online Sept. 4 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Matthew Joseph Lennon, Ph.D., from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and colleagues assessed the cognitive effects of sports-related concussion (SRC) in nonathletes. The analysis included 15,214 U.K. community-dwelling adults (aged 50 to 90 years) followed annually for four years.

The researchers found that at baseline, the SRC group had significantly better working memory (B = 0.113) and verbal reasoning (B = 0.199) versus those without concussion. Additionally, those who had suffered one SRC at baseline had significantly better verbal reasoning (B = 0.111) and attention (B = 0.115) versus those with no SRC at baseline. However, participants with three or more non-SRCs had significantly worse processing speed (B = −0.082) and attention (B = −0.156), as well as a significantly worse trajectory of verbal reasoning with increasing age (B = −0.088).

"While these results do not indicate the safety of any sport in particular, they do indicate that overall sports may have greater beneficial effects for long-term cognitive health than the damage it causes, even in those who have experienced concussion," Lennon said in a statement.

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted September 2024

Read this next

2015 to 2021 Saw Decrease in Incidence of Dementia

FRIDAY, May 23, 2025 -- From 2015 to 2021, there was a decrease in the incidence of dementia, but an increase in prevalence, according to a study published online May 20 in The...

Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 May Affect Risk for Alzheimer Disease

THURSDAY, May 22, 2025 -- Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer disease (AD) based on real-world data from the United States...

Exposure to Certain HIV Drugs May Significantly Lower Risk for Alzheimer Disease

TUESDAY, May 20, 2025 -- Exposure to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), which treat HIV and hepatitis B and inhibit inflammasome activation, is associated with a...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.