Ex-footballers ‘less likely to suffer from mental health issues’

LONDON: A new FIELD study funded by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association has found that former players had a higher level of neurodegenerative disease, but fewer suffered from mental health conditions.

A database of 7,676 Scottish former professional footballers, born between 1900 and 1976, was used for the study and compared to 23,000 members of the general population. It found the football group had higher rates of the disease as cause of death compared to the control group.

However, the former professional players were also half as likely to suffer from a number of mental health conditions including anxiety, stress, drug and alcohol misuse and

mood disorders.

The research also supports findings which show that mental health is improved in those who exercise regularly.

Previous studies had suggested that in former NFL players who were affected by Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy - a brain condition associated with repeated blows to the head - there was also a higher rate of depression and suicide. The FIELD study regarding dementia, however, showed the opposite.

The most recent research built on an earlier FIELD study, published in 2019, which found former footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of a neurodegenerative disorder.

Another study, looking at the impact of current and historic footballs, found that the gradual move away from the leather ball in the 1980s could be an important focus for future research.

The Loughborough University study found that when a leather ball is wet it can weigh up to 40 per cent more than a dry ball, and the resultant impact force is significantly higher, compared to the lower force of the dry leather ball and the modern ball.

Both footballs were fired against a dummy head to determine the force, although the study did not draw conclusions about the effects of the change of the ball force.

The FA is continuing to fund two research studies with Nottingham University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine which are looking at former professional footballers for early signs of neurocognitive degeneration, with both studies set to end in the next two years.