[gocard14]

Interesting paper, but a few things I note. Some things like earlier arthritis and sadly dementia or cognitive decline are expected based on what we already know. Others, like higher rates of diabetes are unclear in mechanism and may be indicative of correlation rather then causation. 

One issue that jumps out to me is they control for BMI. But they don’t control for past BMI which admittedly would be very difficult. One could easily imagine that a lineman who spent their 20s and 30s at 300 pounds then dropped to 220 after playing is higher risk for diabetes then someone who was at 220 their entire life.

[gocard14]

Interesting paper, but a few things I note. Some things like earlier arthritis and sadly dementia or cognitive decline are expected based on what we already know. Others, like higher rates of diabetes are unclear in mechanism and may be indicative of correlation rather then causation. 

One issue that jumps out to me is they control for BMI. But they don’t control for past BMI which admittedly would be very difficult. One could easily imagine that a lineman who spent their 20s and 30s at 300 pounds then dropped to 220 after playing is higher risk for diabetes then someone who was at 220 their entire life.