A new study has found that there is no evidence that health and lifestyle risk factors are responsible for the increased dementia risk found in former professional footballers.
The latest findings by Glasgow Uni boffin Willie Stewart has shed more light on the potential reasons why former ex-pro footballers experience higher risk of dementia compared with the general population.
An earlier study by Professor Stewart found the ex-players were about three-and-a-half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative brain disease.
The newest research focusses on data from the electronic health records of almost 12,000 former professional football players and almost 36,000 matched population controls in Scotland.
Researchers compared key dementia risk factors across the two groups, including smoking, depression, alcohol-related disorders, diabetes, hypertension, hearing loss and obesity.
Overall, the study team found that the rates of these general health and lifestyle dementia risk factors were typically similar – or lower – among former players, compared to their counterparts. Moreover, the contribution of these factors to dementia outcomes was notably lower in former players than in the general population.
This latest study builds on previous FIELD study research, which in 2019 demonstrated that former professional footballers had a 3.5 times higher rate of death from neurodegenerative disease.
Additional research in 2021 showed a direct association between career length and dementia risk, with the risk of neurodegenerative disease increasing up to fivefold for those with the longest careers.
Professor Stewart said: “Our latest results suggest the relationship between higher rates of neurodegenerative disease among former professional footballers is not driven by those wider general health and lifestyle factors, widely recognised as dementia risk factors.
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“As such, while interventions to address general health and lifestyle risk factors should remain recommended, the priority for neurodegenerative disease risk mitigation among contact sports athletes should continue to focus on the reduction, if not removal, of exposure to repetitive head impacts and traumatic brain injury, wherever practical.”
This study underscores the need for ongoing efforts to reduce repetitive head impacts and improve head injury management in sports to mitigate dementia risk among athletes.
The study, ‘Influence of health and lifestyle factors on dementia risk among former professional soccer players’ was funded by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers Association, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Medical Research Council (MRC).
Earlier this year the widow of tragic footballer Frank Kopel backed calls for headers to be banned from the game.
Amanda Kopel blames Frank’s death on heading the ball and said the practice should end after the World Cup in 2030. Frank, who played for Dundee Utd, Man Utd and Blackburn, died aged 65 in 2014 after a battle with vascular dementia.
Speaking on what would have been her husband's 75th birthday, Amanda said:“Frankie and I should be celebrating today and looking forward to the rest of our lives together, instead I’ve been grieving his loss and mourning him for 10 years.
“Football has to change because the game is a long, slow, certain killer while heading the ball is part of it. The game is called football not headball and the rules have to change. Nobody should head a ball – particularly children.
“Frankie loved the game but we never imagined for a moment it was so damaging.”
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