Former professional football players are three and a half times more likely to die from dementia compared to other people within the same age range, as investigated by researchers from Glasgow University in the United Kingdom. Studies investigating the correlation between repeated head trauma and brain injuries began when claims surfaced, saying that former England and West Brom striker Jeff Astle died because of frequent head trauma in 2002. A post-mortem revealed that indeed, Astle died from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a type of dementia known to be caused by repeated head trauma.
73 years worth of data tell a compelling story
Research into the link between repetitive head trauma and brain injury began in January 2018, as commissioned by the Football Association (FA) and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) following delays from the previous years. The study entitled "Football's Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk" or FIELD was spearheaded by the Glasgow Brain Injury Research Group. The research team made use of data provided by the deaths of 7676 former football players with the deaths of around 23000 from the general population in Scotland, between 1900 and 1973. The lead proponent of the study, neuropathologist Dr. Willie Stewart, noted that this landmark study is the largest so far, which answers questions on the high neurodegenerative disease incidence rate among athletes, not just for football players.
Dr. Stewart has also investigated the likelihood of former football players to be diagnosed with other neurodegenerative diseases. As quoted by BBC News, "[the] risk ranged from a five-fold increase in Alzheimer's disease, through an approximately four-fold increase in motor neuron disease, to a two-fold Parkinson's disease in former professional footballers compared to population controls." On the other hand, former footballs were less likely to die from more common diseases afflicting the general population, such as heart disease and lung cancer.
The Astle family continue their father's legacy
The findings from the study are very promising towards the understanding of dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases caused by repeated head trauma common in football and other contact sports. The Astle Family remains steadfast in uncovering the truth of the cause of the family patriarch's death at the age of 59, with support coming from other families whose relatives were former athletes who have also been afflicted with brain injuries. This has led them to establish the Jeff Astle Foundation on April 11, 2015, to "raise awareness of brain injury in all forms of sport and to offer much-needed support to those affected."
The current study amends the previous study conducted immediately after Astle's death, which only lasted five years, making results quite unreliable. This has angered the Astle family alongside other families affected, prompting the FA and PFA to launch the study as soon as possible.
Dr. Carol Routledge, director of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, praised the study yet stressed that there should be "further high-quality research," noting how the study focused on a select group of people but fails to provide any recommendations for improvement of the sport, according to an interview with the Swindon Advertiser. While the response to the discovery has been widely positive, future talks should also include ways of mitigating the effects of frequent head trauma, most especially that football is a beloved sport in the UK.
