Football’s Influence on Lifelong health and Dementia risk (FIELD)

There are growing public anxieties over perceived increased risk of dementia in former professional footballers, however, robust data to inform on late neurodegenerative outcomes of participation in football is lacking. Importantly, insight into risk of neurodegenerative disease must be read in context of wider lifelong health outcomes to permit adequately informed discussions on the holistic public health implications of participation in football.

This programme of research is directed to studies interrogating a comprehensive database of former professional footballers and NHS Scotland’s unique electronic health records to investigate a wide range of physical and mental health outcomes, including neurodegenerative disease, in former footballers compared to appropriate age, sex and deprivation matched controls. The specific aims are:

Aim 1: Compare the incidence of neurodegenerative disease, including dementia, in former professional footballers to a matched general population comparison group.

Aim 2: Compare the incidence of chronic physical and mental health conditions in former professional footballers to a matched general population comparison group.

Aim 3: Compare all-cause and disease-specific mortality in former professional footballers to a matched general population comparison group.

Aim 4: Register former footballers for autopsy brain donation for diagnostic assessment at the time of death to inform on neurodegenerative pathologies in this population.

When applying, please enter the project title in the programme description box in the online application form.