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BU study indicates CTE risk is linked to years of hockey played, not just to being an enforcer
The BU CTE Center studied 77 male brains who were amateurs and professional ice hockey players. 27 out of 28 professional players had CTE.
A new Boston University study found that hockey players increase their risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, with each year they play.
The BU CTE Center studied 77 brains from males who were amateur and professional ice hockey players. Of the 28 professional players, 27 of them had CTE, according to the study shared on the American Medical Association’s Jama Network Open.
For each year played, the odds of a male ice hockey player contracting CTE increased by 34 percent, the study found. That outpaces football players, whose odds of developing the disease increases by 30 percent each year. Rugby is the only other sport identified with a proven CTE risk, BU said.
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“Ice hockey players with longer careers not only were more likely to have CTE, but they also had more severe disease,” Jesse Mez, corresponding author and co-director of clinical research at the CTE Center, said in a release.
BU noted that while CTE could appear to be more common hockey enforcers — players with an unofficial role to fight and play aggressively — all players are at risk. Mez said the years played could be more significant than the playing style.
“Ice hockey players skate quickly, and checking leads to impacts with other players, the ice, boards and glass. We think years of play is a proxy for these impacts that are harder to measure directly, but are likely what are leading to the disease,” Mez said.
What is CTE, and who’s getting it?
CTE is a degenerative disease affecting people with repeated head injuries, according to the CTE Center. While it’s found in contact sport players, it’s not exclusive to professional athletes. Symptoms can include memory loss, confusion, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, dementia, suicidality, and parkinsonism.
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Infamously, New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez was severely affected by the disease before his suicide. But, he was just one of hundreds former NFL players diagnosed with CTE.
The study said there was a “dose-response association between years of ice hockey played and the presence and severity of CTE pathology.” The association is similar for football players and their play duration, but this is the first and largest study indicating that ice hockey has that same correlation.
Of the 77 ice hockey players, 42 men were diagnosed with CTE, which can only be determined posthumously. CTE was found in about 19 percent of players who played less than 13 years, 51 percent in those who played between 13 and 23 years, and almost 96 percent of people who played more than 23 years of hockey.
46 percent of college, juniors, and semi-professional ice hockey players had CTE, and 10 percent of youth and high school players had CTE, the BU study found.
CTE is ‘isolated’ in NHL players, commissioner said previously
The study comes as the NHL commissioner has repeatedly denied a serious connection between men’s ice hockey and CTE.
Last year, Commissioner Gary Bettman said the disease in NHL players has been “isolated” and “doesn’t mean that it necessarily came from playing in the NHL,” he told NPR. At the time, there was some evidence from BU that proved that false.
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“The two are not comparable in terms of the amount of contact,” Bettman told NPR, when talking of CTE impacts on football and hockey.
The NHL Players Association, headed by former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, announced a first-ever advisory committee last month, aiming to help players better understand CTE and concussions.
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