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How do repeated physical efforts of a professional football career affect health? NAKO researchers aim to get to the bottom of this question based on the health data of 348 former professional footballers in Germany. In the journal BMJ Sport and Exercise Medicine, the scientists provide an overview of the SoccHealth Study. The scientific findings on the development and frequency of diseases in this particular group are to be used to assess the health benefits and disadvantages of long-term professional activity as a sportsman or sportswoman.
The SoccHealth Study is a satellite project of the German National Cohort (NAKO), Germany’s largest population study on major chronic diseases, and focuses on the long-term health of professional footballers. The aim is to describe and analyze football-specific patterns on a broad spectrum of diseases including cardiovascular, metabolic, musculoskeletal and neurological disorders in former professional footballers. This football part (SoccHealth) of the German National Cohort (NAKO) is funded by Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB, German Football Association), Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL, German Football League), Verwaltungsberufsgenossenschaft (VBG, Employer’s Liability Insurance Association) and Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and managed by Professor Dr Klaus Berger (University of Münster) and Professor Dr Tim Meyer (Saarland University). Their current publication describes the procedure for recruiting and examining 348 professional footballers. The data obtained is now the basis for addressing research questions.
Between the ages of 40 and 69, the ex-professionals took part in medical examinations and surveys on their health and health-related behaviour at the 18 NAKO study centres starting in spring 2021. Various bio samples were collected from all participants; 222 professional footballers also received a full-body MRI scan. Football-related information such as the number of matches played during the career, the playing positions and the level of play enable an estimation of the cumulated physical load over the entire sporting career. The examinations of the 52 women and 296 men have been completed in autumn 2023.
‘The data from the SoccHealth Study is unique in its range and depth of detail. As part of the German National Cohort (NAKO), the measurements in former top players can be compared with a large database from the general population. This significantly increases the quality and relevance of the current scientific analyses,’ says Professor Dr Henry Völzke, Chairman of the Board of NAKO e.V.
The average age of male players is 54.5 years and 46.9 years for women. The most common playing position for male ex-professionals was defender, followed by midfielder, while the reverse has been found for women. Both genders have played a total of 32 years of football training and matches in amateur and professional leagues. On average, men ended their professional career at the age of 33, compared to 34 for women.
‘The career data indicate that the football exposure of the SoccHealth participants was high and did not differ significantly between men and women. As expected, the level of injury-related breaks of over one month during a career was also very high for both genders. Female ex-professionals had a higher median number of seasons in the first Bundesliga, but a lower number in the second Bundesliga, which is most likely due to the different times at which the leagues were introduced,’ analyses Prof. Dr Tim Meyer, Chair of Sports and Preventive Medicine at Saarland University and for many years team physician of Germany´s men’s national team.
In addition to the analysis of bio and imaging markers, the self-reported information on weight progression and lifestyle factors such as smoking behaviour will provide important information for prevention research.
‘Various studies in recent years have focused on the health of professional footballers. These have mostly been limited to the health of the brain and the possible consequences of playing football. The comprehensive medical examinations and surveys of the participants within the SoccHealth Study are particularly relevant for research and will answer questions about the development, frequency and causes of a wide range of major chronic diseases such as heart attacks, high blood pressure, strokes or lipometabolic disorders in professional footballers,’ says Prof Dr Klaus Berger, scientist at the University of Münster.
‘The VBG insures professional sport. We support studies that aim to reduce the consequences of accidents or prevent accidents. Head injuries and other football-related impacts can have serious consequences, which is the reason why we are very interested in the results of this study,’ says Norbert Moser, Prevention Field Coordinator for Sport at the Employer’s Liability Insurance Association VBG.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Berger
Institutsdirektor Institut für Epidemiologie und Sozialmedizin der Universität Münster
Prof. Dr. Tim Meyer
Ärztlicher Direktor des Instituts für Sport- und Präventivmedizin
Berger K, Baurecht H, Stein M, et al. SoccHealth: a health status examination of former professional football (soccer) players within the German National Cohort. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine 2024;10:e002228. doi:10.1136/bmjsem-2024-002228
https://nako.de/en/?p=35082&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=35085
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