According to one study, football players are 50% more likely than the general population to develop dementia.
Researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet analyzed the health records of 6,000 elite footballers and more than 56,000 non-footballers between 1924 and 2019. Their findings were published today in the Lancet Public Health journal.
They discovered that 9% of male players in Sweden’s top league had neurodegenerative illness, compared to 6% of the control sample.
The study compared the cognitive health of outfield players and goalkeepers. Outfield players were shown to have a 1.6 higher risk of Alzheimer’s and other kinds of dementia than the general population. Nevertheless, goalkeepers, who rarely head the ball, had no elevated risk of Alzheimer’s or dementia, “indicating the idea that minor head impacts absorbed when heading the ball could explain the increased risk among outfield players,” according to the study.
Peter Ueda, assistant professor at Karolinska Institutet and co-author of the study, said: “Importantly, our findings suggest that goalkeepers don’t have the same increased risk of neurodegenerative disease as outfield players. Goalkeepers rarely head the ball, unlike outfield players, but are exposed to similar environments and lifestyles during their football careers and perhaps also after retirement.”
In contrast, the authors discovered no significant increase in the risk of motor neurone disease in football players, whereas the risk of Parkinson’s disease and total mortality was lower in football players compared to the control group.
The findings come on the heels of a 2019 Scottish study that found former professional footballers were 3.5 times more likely to acquire dementia and other catastrophic brain illnesses. A study published last year discovered that professional players have worse brain health after the age of 65 than non-footballers.
David Curtis, honorary professor, UCL Genetics Institute, said: “It seems extremely plausible that repeatedly heading the ball during training and normal play produces brain damage which over time can result in dementia.
“The fact that the risk to goalkeepers, who rarely head the ball, is not increased, strengthens this hypothesis. If we assume that about one in 10 people would develop dementia anyway, then this means that about one in 20 professional footballers will develop dementia who would not otherwise have done so, as a result of heading the ball.”
In England, the Football Association is trialling banning children under 12 from heading the ball in certain grassroots competitions and leagues. If successful, it will apply to the International Football Association Board for a law change to remove heading for under-12s altogether.
But campaigners called for a complete ban on children heading the ball. Luke Griggs, chief executive of brain injury charity Headway, said:“It is important that football is willing to evolve as our understanding of the long-term implications of repeated sub-concussive impacts increases.
“We know enough now to make balanced, sensible adjustments to limit exposure to head impacts.” This includes “limiting of heading practice drills for adults, and complete bans on children heading the ball as they move through key stages in their physical and neurological development,” he added.
Dr. Adam White, head of brain health at the Professional Footballers’ Association, called for the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council to “to recognise dementia as an industrial disease”. He added: “We are doing all we can to improve the management of head trauma by lobbying for temporary concussion substitutions and working towards a reduction of heading in training.“