Here’s a recent headline in a popular health news web
site: Jocks Are Dumber, Research shows.
The study this headline referred to tested cognitive
functioning in athletes in contact sports and athletes in non-contact sports
both at the beginning of the athletic season and at the end.
The study found that about 1/5 of the athletes (22 %)
who’d competed in contact sports i.e. those who’d sustained hits to the head
during their athletic season, had significantly lower cognitive scores in some
measures at the end of their season compared to the beginning compared to only
4 % of the athletes in non-contact sports.
Ergo the headline.
However, even a person with only rudimentary math skills
(me, for example) can figure out that in this study, 78 % of the athletes in
contact sports did not have any change in cognitive functions.
In fact, even the lead author of the study noted that
“overall, there were few differences in the test
results between the athletes in contact sports and the athletes in non-contact
sports.”
In other words, yes, a few athletes
in contact sports suffered a problem, most did not.
A perfect example of why medical
story headlines are meant to attract eyeballs, not to tell the truth.
