Rita Odafe
A recent study has revealed that footballers are 50% more likely to develop dementia than the general population. Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden compared the health records of 6,000 elite footballers and more than 56,000 non-footballers between 1924 and 2019 and found that 9% of male footballers playing in the Swedish top division were diagnosed with neurodegenerative disease, compared with 6% of the control sample. The study also showed that outfield players had a 1.6 increased risk of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia than the wider population sample, while goalkeepers – who rarely head the ball – had no increased risk.
In contrast, there was no significant risk increase for football players of contracting motor neurone disease, while the risk of Parkinson’s disease and overall mortality was lower among football players compared with the control group.
The findings follow 2019 Scottish research which concluded that former professional footballers were 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia and other serious neurological diseases. Last year, a study also found that professional footballers are more likely to have worse brain health after age 65 than non-footballers.
In response to this, 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. However, campaigners are calling for a complete ban on children heading the ball. Additionally, Dr. Adam White, head of brain health at the Professional Footballers’ Association, is urging the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council to recognise dementia as an industrial disease. He is also working towards a reduction of heading in training.
