Footballers risk brain trauma death

A new study carried out by Glasgow University has found former footballers are approximately three-and-a-half times more likely to die from neurodegenerative diseases than the general population.

The report, released last week, was commissioned by England’s Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association to assess the medical records of 7,676 men who played professional football in Scotland between 1900 and 1976.

Their records were matched against more than 23,000 individuals from the general population, with the study led by consultant neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart of Glasgow University.

His findings report that the “risk ranged from a five-fold increase in Alzheimer’s disease, through an approximately fourfold increase in motor neuron disease, to a two-fold Parkinson’s disease in former professional footballers”.

Although footballers had higher risk of death from neurodegenerative disease, they were less likely to die of other common diseases, such as heart disease and some cancers, including lung cancer.

The study titled “Football’s Influence On Lifelong Health And Dementia Risk” found that deaths in ex-footballers were lower than expected up to age 70, and higher than expected over that age.

Dr Stewart said in a statement: “An important aspect of this work has been the ability to look across a range of health outcomes in former professional footballers. This allows us to build a more complete picture of health in this population.

“Our data show that while former footballers had higher dementia rates, they had lower rates of death due to other major diseases.

“As such, whilst every effort must be made to identify the factors contributing to the increased risk of neurodegenerative disease to allow this risk to be reduced, there are also wider potential health benefits of playing football to be considered.”