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Playing tackle football in childhood has been linked to memory and cognition problems in adulthood.

New research reveals that former National Football League players who participated in tackle football before the age of 12 were significantly more likely to have cognition problems in adulthood.

The latest study involved 42 NFL players with an average age of 52. All participants reported experiencing memory and thinking problems for at least six months. However, only half of participants participated in tackle football before the age of 12 and half did not.

Study results revealed that participants who started playing football before age 12 performed significantly worse on all memory and thinking tests. Further analysis revealed the difference between the two groups was equivalent to a 20-percent difference in level of current functioning on several measures, according to researchers.

"Our study suggests that there may be a critical window of brain development during which repeated head impacts can lead to thinking and memory difficulties later in life," study author Robert Stern, PhD, of Boston University School of Medicine, said in a news release. "If larger studies confirm this association, there may be a need to consider safety changes in youth sports."

"Football has the highest injury rate among team sports," Dr. Christopher M. Filley, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, wrote in an accompanying editorial. "Given that 70 percent of all football players in the United States are under the age of 14, and every child ages nine to 12 can be exposed to 240 head impacts during a single football season, a better understanding of how these impacts may affect children's brains is urgently needed."

"While the researchers did take into account the total years of football played, they were unable to assess the total number of head impacts. So it's possible that the number of impacts is responsible for the reported results rather than the early age of exposure to football," Filley noted.

Researchers noted that the latest findings from the NFL study might not apply to people in the general public, and more research is needed before they can give formal recommendations.

"There are tremendous benefits of participating in youth team sports. The goal is to make them safer," Stern concluded.

The findings are published in the journal Neurology.