Additional Years of Ice Hockey Play May Be Linked to Greater Chance of CTE

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease linked to the repetitive head impacts that athletes get from playing contact sports. According to a new preliminary study, each additional year of playing ice hockey may increase a person’s chance of developing CTE by about 23 percent.

“Previous research has shown a relationship between increasing years of playing football and increased chances of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy later on, and our results suggest the same is true for ice hockey,” said author Jesse Mez, MD, MS, director of the BU Alzheimer’s Disease Center Clinical Core and a BU CTE Center Investigator.

The study involved 74 people who played ice hockey at various highest levels: seven played at the youth level, 25 played at the high school level, 22 played at the junior or college level, 19 played professionally and one played at an unknown level. In addition, 34 people, or 46 percent, played another contact sport like football. All donated their brains to research after their death. Of the 74 donors, 40, or 54 percent, were diagnosed with CTE at autopsy.

The disease is characterized by four progressive stages of severity Each additional year of play was also associated with a 15 percent increased chance for a person progressing one CTE stage.

When researchers looked only at those who played hockey as their primary source of head impacts, the results were similar.

“While the absolute risk for ice hockey players of developing CTE is still unknown, it may be concerning to athletes and their families that we found each year of ice hockey play may increase the odds of developing CTE by 23 percent,” said Mez. “Our research may be useful for them when making informed decisions about play. Still, it is important to note that more research is needed to further confirm our results.”

A limitation of the study is that brain donors may not represent the general population of ice hockey players, as donors have played more hockey and may have more cognitive, mood and behavior symptoms than ice hockey players overall.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute on Aging, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Alzheimer’s Association and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The research will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 74^th Annual Meeting being held in person in Seattle, April 2 to 7, 2022 and virtually, April 24 to 26, 2022.

What is CTE?

According to the Boston University CTE Center, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. CTE is caused in part by repeated traumatic brain injuries, which include concussions and nonconcussive impacts. In CTE, experts believe a structural protein in neurons called tau misfolds and malfunctions, causes adjacent proteins to misfold, and sets off a chain reaction where this malfunctioning tau slowly spreads throughout the brain, killing brain cells. Right now, CTE can only be definitively diagnosed by autopsy after death. CTE has been diagnosed in people who died as young as 17, but symptoms do not generally begin appearing until years after the onset of head impacts. Most of what we have learned about CTE has come from the research of Dr. Ann McKee, director of the UNITE Brain Bank at Boston University. CLF co-founded the UNITE Brain Bank in 2008 and remains a collaborator on education and advocacy.

Learn more about CTE from Dr. Ann McKee, by watching the video below. You can support her research by clicking here.