THURSDAY, March 5, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Football is the single leading source of pediatric sports-related traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to a study scheduled for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, to be held from April 18 to 22 in Chicago.
Isaac Thorman, from New York Medical College in Valhalla, and colleagues quantified the burden of football-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) in youth versus TBI from other sports and recreational activities. The analysis included 72,025 activity-related TBIs in children and young adults (aged 25 years and younger) identified from the TriNetX Research Network.
The researchers found that football accounted for 19.4 percent of all youth activity-related TBIs (mean age, 13.9 years; 32 percent female). Repeat TBI occurred in 37 percent of football injuries versus 32 percent overall. For both neurological outcomes (chronic headache, 23 percent; visual impairment, 5 percent; neurodevelopmental disorders, 0.5 percent) and psychiatric outcomes (anxiety, 5 percent; depression, 3 percent; substance use, 1 percent; suicidality or violence, 0.5 percent), football was a significant attributable risk. There was an association between TBIs sustained at younger ages and developmental and mood disorders, while those sustained at older ages were associated with substance use disorders.
"Our findings highlight youth football as a critical public health priority, suggesting that brain injuries sustained during key stages of development may reshape health later," coauthor Steven Wolf, M.D., from Boston Children's Health Physicians in Hawthorne, New York, said in a statement. "Prioritizing safety standards like delaying tackle football participation and finding ways to limit repeat injuries could help better protect developing brains."