Neurodegenerative Disease Death Certification Among National Football League Players With Dementia

This cohort study found that only 30.7% of brain donors with clinician-adjudicated dementia had neurodegenerative death certification. These results add to growing evidence of frequent NDD underascertainment where more severe disease is associated with neurodegenerative death certification, offering insight into factors that must be considered when using death certificate data to assess NDD burden. Factors such as worsened executive functioning and cognitive symptoms, greater functional impairment, and more severe neuropathology may be associated with an increased likelihood of neurodegenerative death certification among NFL players.

Corresponding Author: Daniel H. Daneshvar, MD, PhD, Spaulding Rehabilitation at Mass General Brigham, 300 First Ave, Charlestown, MA 02129 (ddaneshvar@mgh.harvard.edu).

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