CTE found in 215 of 235 donated NFL brains, and the denominator is 878
A cohort study in The BMJ identified 878 former National Football League players who died between 2016 and 2021 and found chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 215 of the 235 whose brains were donated for examination. Because donation was not random, the authors report the share among all 878 as a range running from 24.5 per cent to 97.7 per cent.
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Reported development
CTE found in 215 of 235 donated NFL brains, and the denominator is 878 A cohort study in The BMJ identified 878 former National Football League players who died between 2016 and 2021 and found chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 215 of the 235 whose brains were donated for examination. Because donation was not random, the authors report the share among all 878 as a range running from 24.5 per cent to 97.7 per cent. The work was carried out by Mass General Brigham with Boston University and the Concussion and CTE Foundation, drawing donations mainly from the UNITE Brain Bank at the Boston University CTE Center along with Mount Sinai and the University of California, San Francisco. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy appeared in 91.4 per cent of donors, and dementia in 61.3 per cent of the donors who had it.[1]
Details in the report
A cohort study in The BMJ identified 878 former National Football League players who died between 2016 and 2021 and found chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 215 of the 235 whose brains were donated for examination. Because donation was not random, the authors report the share among all 878 as a range running from 24.5 per cent to 97.7 per cent. The work was carried out by Mass General Brigham with Boston University and the Concussion and CTE Foundation, drawing donations mainly from the UNITE Brain Bank at the Boston University CTE Center along with Mount Sinai and the University of California, San Francisco. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy appeared in 91.4 per cent of donors, and dementia in 61.3 per cent of the donors who had it. The lower bound of 24.5 per cent assumes no undonated player had the disease and the upper bound assumes they all did; the authors write that the true figure is expected to lie between the two, and name donor selection as the reason the range cannot be narrowed from these data.[1]
Additional context
CTE found in 215 of 235 donated NFL brains, and the denominator is 878 A cohort study in The BMJ identified 878 former National Football League players who died between 2016 and 2021 and found chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 215 of the 235 whose brains were donated for examination. Because donation was not random, the authors report the share among all 878 as a range running from 24.5 per cent to 97.7 per cent. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy appeared in 91.4 per cent of donors, and dementia in 61.3 per cent of the donors who had it. The lower bound of 24.5 per cent assumes no undonated player had the disease and the upper bound assumes they all did; the authors write that the true figure is expected to lie between the two, and name donor selection as the reason the range cannot be narrowed from these data.[1]
