ArticleJournal of racial and ethnic health disparities2020
Life Expectancy of White and Non-White Elite Heavyweight Boxers.
Article in Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Mortality Risk from Neurodegenerative Disease in Sports Associated with Repetitive Head Impacts: Preliminary Findings from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2022Pooled it
- Death Rates of Elite and Professional American Athletes During Early Adulthood are Lower than the General Population.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2026Article
- Adverse stroke outcomes amongst UK ethnic minorities: a multi-centre registry-based cohort study of acute stroke.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn post-industrial countries, ethnic minorities suffer poorer health and premature deaths. The present study examined ethnic differences in life expectancy and related features among elite heavyweight boxers.
methodsDates of birth and death, anthropometry, and championship years were gathered from media archives for champions and challengers (never been a champion) between years 1889 and 2019. Cox regression adjusted for age at contest, nationality, BMI, champion/challenger status, and number of contests was used to assess survival.
resultsAll 237 boxers, 83 champions (37.3% whites) and 154 challengers (61.0% whites), who contested for heavyweight championships were identified. By 2019, 110 (75 whites, 34 non-whites) were known to have died. Non-white boxers died at an earlier age than whites boxers (mean ± SD = 59.8 ± 14.2 years versus 67.3 ± 16.4 years, p = 0.018) and had shorter survival: HR = 2.13 (95% CI = 1.4-3.3). Among non-white boxers, deaths were higher from neurological disorders: OR = 8.2 (95% CI = 1.3-13.5) and accidents: OR = 15.1 (95% CI = 2.3-98.2), while death from natural causes was lower: OR = 0.2 (95% CI = 0.03-0.8). After boxing careers, fewer non-white boxers had non-manual jobs (34.4% versus 71.8%) than manual (34.4% versus 19.7%) or were unemployed (28.1% versus 2.8%). Reported substance abuse was similar across ethnicity (8.0% versus 8.8%) but conviction rates were higher among non-white boxers (17.6%) than white (1.3%).
conclusionsCompared with white boxers, non-white boxers tend to die younger with excess neurological and accidental deaths, and they have lower social positions in later life. Sporting authorities should reappraise the wisdom of permitting head injuries in sport and monitor and support the health and wellbeing of sports men and women after retirement.
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