Health Biodata Initiative

Participating in the Health Biodata Initiative offers you and other former players the opportunity to contribute valuable heart, hormone, metabolic, and immune information that will be used to study former player health. If you complete the SiPhox kit, you will receive personalized health information that you can bring to your doctor’s office.

If you choose to participate in the Health Biodata Initiative, you will be asked to provide an address where we can send a biosample collection kit, which will include specific instructions.

No, at this time, genetic data is not being analyzed as part of this study.

No genetic analyses will be done on your sample without your explicit consent. You will be contacted for your permission if genetic analyses are considered for future studies.

If you decide to withdraw from the study, you can communicate your decision to the study team via phone (617-432-5000) or email healthbiodata@footballplayershealth.harvard.edu. Any remaining samples or data related to you will be handled according to your decision. Your participation is entirely voluntary, and you have the right to withdraw at any time.

You will receive personal health information if you return a completed SiPhox kit. This information may include insights into your metabolic and heart health, hormone levels, and inflammation.

The timing for receiving health data results may vary, but efforts will be made to process and provide results to participants in a reasonable timeframe (e.g., within 4-6 weeks) following sample collection.

Your health data results will be securely provided to you through a secure email platform. You can then print your results to review and share with your medical provider for further discussion.

Compensation includes a $25 e-gift card for providing a SiPhox blood spot sample, and a $25 e-gift card for contributing a saliva sample and/or second blood spot card to our future research archive.

Your data will be protected through strict confidentiality measures. All identifying information will be kept confidential within secure data repositories and will only be accessible to authorized personnel involved in the study. Your data will not be shared with the NFL, the NFLPA, or any other entity.

If you have additional questions or concerns about the study, you can contact the study team directly at healthbiodata@footballplayershealth.harvard.edu. Our staff will provide contact information and support resources to facilitate communication and address any inquiries you may have.