Study finds high prevalence of CTE among former NFL players

How many of the professional American football league (NFL) players who died between 2016 and 2021 suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)? At least a quarter, or almost all of them, were suffering from this neurodegenerative disease at the time of their death, reveals an American study published at the end of August in the British Medical Journal.

In total, 878 former players died during this period. Among them, 235 donated their brains to research, of which 215 suffered from CTE. In other words, at least 24.5% of the players who died over this period had an ETC, a percentage which could rise, by extrapolation, to 97.7% of the total players. “Among NFL players who donated their brains, dementia diagnosed based on medical records before death was common and associated with stage IV CTE,” specify the authors, researchers at Harvard University.

A late recognized disease

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy…