FORMER footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from dementia than the general population, according to a new study. The research was carried out to investigate whether heading a football could be linked to brain injuries. The findings come 17 years since the death of former England and West Brom striker Jeff Astle with […]
FORMER footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from dementia than the general population, according to a new study.
The research was carried out to investigate whether heading a football could be linked to brain injuries.
The findings come 17 years since the death of former England and West Brom striker Jeff Astle with what a coroner described as an “industrial injury”.
Since Astle’s death, the families of dozens of other ex-footballers, including several from England’s 1966 World Cup-winning squad, have come forward to reveal their stories of dealing with dementia and related illnesses.
The report, commissioned by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association, assessed the medical records of 7,676 men who played professional football in Scotland and were born 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 four-fold increase in motor neurone disease, to a two-fold Parkinson’s disease in former professional footballers compared to population controls”.
The study is titled ‘Football’s Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk’ or FIELD for short.
Dr Stewart said: “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.”
FA chairman Greg Clarke said: “The whole game must recognise that this is only the start of our understanding and there are many questions that still need to be answered.
“It is important that the global football family now unites to find the answers and provide a greater understanding of this complex issue.
“The FA is committed to doing all it can to make that happen.”
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor said it was “incumbent on football globally to come together to address this issue in a comprehensive and united manner”.
He added: “Research must continue to answer more specific questions about what needs to be done to identify and reduce risk factors.”
It is not clear from the study what the exact causes of the increased rates of dementia are.
The FA said in a statement: “The study does not determine whether the cause is due to concussions suffered by the group of professional footballers, or concussion management, or heading of the football, or style of play, or the design and composition of footballs over the years, or personal lifestyle, or some other factor.”
Astle’s family has continued to campaign for football authorities to invest in research programmes to discover whether heading a football can lead to brain injuries.
The former footballer died in 2002 at the age of 59.
