ArticleEClinicalMedicine2026
Neurodegenerative mortality among National Football League Players.
Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Neurodegenerative Disease Death Certification Among National Football League Players With Dementia.JAMA network open · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Empirical research demonstrates elevated neurodegenerative mortality among individuals with repetitive head impact (RHI) exposure, including National Football League (NFL) players. This investigation addressed prior methodological limitations, including selection bias, subjective diagnoses, and retrospective reporting, by analyzing the relationship between RHI exposure and neurodegenerative mortality in a fully enumerated, 5.8-fold larger cohort of NFL players. Methods: A population-based retrospective cohort study was conducted comprising all current and former NFL athletes who debuted between 1960 and 2019 and played at least one regular or postseason NFL game, with National Death Index records (1979-2023) matched to Sports Reference, LLC data. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health data compared to an age-, sex-, race-, and calendar-year-standardized general population. Sensitivity analysis assessed whether the observed excess neurodegenerative mortality could be attributed to competing risks using a cause-specific hazard simulation. Findings: A total of 19,824 athletes had a cumulative 518,833 person-years (mean = 26.2 years, SD = 16.2), with 1994 decedents. NFL players exhibited lower all-cause mortality (SMR = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.67-0.74) but higher neurodegenerative mortality (SMR = 3.94; 95% CI: 3.38-4.56), including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SMR = 4.55; 95% CI = 3.13-6.38), all-cause dementia (SMR = 3.80; 95% CI = 3.11-4.60), and Parkinson's disease (SMR = 3.88; 95% CI: 2.76-5.30). Cause-specific hazard simulation indicated that competing risks alone would inflate the expected NDD SMR by a factor of 1.30, yielding a residual neurodegenerative SMR of 3.04 (95% CI: 2.63-3.50). Interpretation: Neurodegenerative mortality was nearly four times higher in NFL players compared to the general population and remained threefold higher after accounting for competing risks. Together, these findings strengthen the evidence for RHI exposure-related neurodegenerative mortality in NFL players that cannot be explained by differential survivorship. Funding: The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [U54NS115266; U01NS086659], the National Institute on Aging [P30AG13846; P30AG072978], and the Maloney/Carpenter Trauma-Related Neurodegenerative Disease Research Fund.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.