Swedish study concludes that soccer players have a higher risk of dementia

The High-level footballers, except goalkeepers, have had a higher risk of developing dementia for a century compared to the general population, according to a Swedish study published on March 17.

a swedish study published this Friday concludes that soccer players are at greater risk of dementia. According to the group of experts, this study provides “convincing evidence” of the relationship between the most popular sport in the world and the increased risk of degenerative brain problems.

A relationship that was already uncovered with the death andn 2020 by Nobby Stilesworld champion in 1966 with England and who suffered from dementia, and with other cases registered in other sports such as rugby, American football and hockey, where blows to the head are frequent.

The study published by the scientific journal The Lancet Public Health analyzed the medical reports of more than 6,000 Swedish first division soccer players between 1924 and 2019. The experts then compared the rate of those affected by degenerative brain problems with that of a sample of 56,000 Swedes. The soccer players had a 1.5 times higher risk of suffering from diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Goalies are the exception in this study, since they do not suffer as many blows to the head as outfield players. “This research confirms the hypothesis that headplay explains this relationship” between soccer and brain diseases, said the study’s lead author, Peter Ueda, of Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet.

This is the largest study conducted on this problem. from another that was done in Scotland in 2019 and that concluded that footballers had 3.5 more chances of suffering neurodegenerative problems.