Association Between Playing American Football in the National Football League and Long-term Mortality.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Studies of the longevity of professional American football players have demonstrated lower mortality relative to the general population but they may have been susceptible to selection bias.

Objective

To examine the association between career participation in professional American football and mortality risk in retirement.

Design, setting, and participants

Retrospective cohort study involving 3812 retired US National Football League (NFL) players who debuted in the NFL between 1982 and 1992, including regular NFL players (n = 2933) and NFL "replacement players" (n = 879) who were temporarily hired to play during a 3-game league-wide player strike in 1987. Follow-up ended on December 31, 2016.

Exposures

NFL participation as a career player or as a repl

SUBMITTER: Venkataramani AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5838566 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature