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The health status of retired American football players: Super Bowl III revisited
by
Nicholas SJ, Nicholas JA, Nicholas C, Diecchio JR, McHugh MP.
—
last modified
2009-10-09 15:17
Am J Sports Med. 2007 Oct;35(10):1674-9. Epub 2007 May 21.
BACKGROUND: Despite a perception that retired professional football players have
poor health, there are little supporting data. HYPOTHESIS: Retired football
players have poor health compared with age-matched population norms. STUDY
DESIGN: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 4. METHODS: Thirty-six of 41
members of the 1969 Super Bowl winning team were contacted 35 years after that
event (3 were deceased, and no contact information was available for 2). Players
completed an SF-36 health survey and a medical history and football-specific
questionnaire. Each player's football-related injury history before 1969 was
documented from medical records. It was estimated that there was 80% power to
detect a 10% difference in physical and mental health scores between the retired
football players (age, 62 +/- 3 y) and population norms (n = 741) at an alpha
level of 0.05. RESULTS: SF-36 scores for physical and mental health were not
different from age-matched norms (physical health P = .69; mental health P =
.49). The most prevalent medical conditions were arthritis (24 of 36 players),
hypertension (13 of 36 players), and chronic low back pain (13 of 36 players).
SF-36 physical health scores were 21% lower in players with arthritis (P < .01)
and back pain (P < .05) compared with the other players. Physical health scores
were 19% above normal for players without arthritis (P < .01) and not different
from normal for players with arthritis (6% lower; P = .6). Four of 8 players who
had major ligamentous injuries to the knee before 1969 had total knee
arthroplasty in the intervening years, compared with 3 of the remaining 28
players (P < .05). The men played professional football for 8.3 +/- 3.8 years,
and 33 players (94%) reported having had "very fulfilling" (n = 24) or "somewhat
fulfilling" (n = 9) careers. CONCLUSION: These professional football players had
long and fulfilling careers with no apparent long-term detrimental effects on
physical or mental health scores despite a high prevalence of arthritis.