SynthesisSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2022
Mortality Risk from Neurodegenerative Disease in Sports Associated with Repetitive Head Impacts: Preliminary Findings from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Repetitive Head Impacts During Contact Sports and Fluid Biomarkers of Neural Damage: A Meta-analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Pooled it
- Brain Health in Former Professional Motorsport Drivers: Case Series in a Population Exposed to Sport-Related Concussions and Repetitive Head Impacts.Sports medicine - open · 2026Article
- Death Rates of Elite and Professional American Athletes During Early Adulthood are Lower than the General Population.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2026Article
- Living with the aftermath: family experiences of managing concussion and sport-related head injury.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Soccer Heading Exposure-Dependent Microstructural Injury at Depths of Sulci in Adult Amateur Players.Neurology · 2025Article
- Fist fighting and increased mortality post-retirement among National Hockey League players.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- On-field Head Acceleration Exposure Measurement Using Instrumented Mouthguards: Missing Data Imputation for Complete Exposure Analysis.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Health characteristics and health behaviours in male former contact sports participants: comparison with general population controls in a Finnish cohort study.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2025Article
- Characterizing white matter and vascular pathologies in brain donors exposed to repetitive head impacts.Acta neuropathologica · 2025Article
- Efficacy Evaluation of Virtual Reality in Cognitive and Psychological Rehabilitation After Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Review
- The Effect of Intranasal Plus Transcranial Photobiomodulation on Neuromuscular Control in Individuals with Repetitive Head Acceleration Events.Photobiomodulation, photomedicine, and laser surgery · 2024Article
- The spectrum of acute and chronic consequences of neurotrauma in professional and amateur boxing - A call to action is advocated to better understand and prevent this phenomenon.Brain & spine · 2024Review
- Dementia in former amateur and professional contact sports participants: population-based cohort study, systematic review, and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Cognitive Impairment and Self-Reported Dementia in UK Retired Professional Soccer Players: A Cross Sectional Comparative Study.Sports medicine - open · 2023Article
- Effects of contact/collision sport history on gait in early- to mid-adulthood.Journal of sport and health science · 2023Article
- Cerebral and cognitive modifications in retired professional soccer players: TC-FOOT protocol, a transverse analytical study.BMJ open · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundProfessional athletes seem to have a lower overall mortality risk than the general population, but controversy exists about whether athletes in sports associated with repetitive head impacts have a higher risk of mortality from neurodegenerative diseases.
objectiveWe aimed to determine the risk of mortality from neurodegenerative diseases in sports associated with repeated head impacts compared with the general population or compared with athletes with no such exposure.
methodsWe conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis, systematically searching PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus (since inception to 14 May 2021) for studies comparing the risk of death from neurodegenerative disease in athletes participating in contact sports in which their heads recurrently receive blows from the bodies of other participants or from a ball versus a control group or dataset representing the general population.
resultsSix moderate- to high-quality retrospective studies including data from 41,699 athletes participating in contact sports (boxing, basketball, ice hockey, American Football and soccer) met all inclusion criteria to be included in the systematic review. Of these, three studies (N = 37,065 male professional soccer players) could be meta-analysed. Despite no differences in the risk of all-cause (p = 0.138), cardiovascular (p = 0.085) and cancer-related mortality (p = 0.136), soccer players presented with a significantly higher mortality risk from motor neuron disease (standard mortality rate 8.43; 95% confidence interval 3.07-23.13; p < 0.001).
conclusionsAlthough more research is needed (particularly in other contact sports and with neurodegenerative disease as the cause of death), preliminary evidence suggests that participation in professional soccer might increase the risk of mortality from motor neuron disease compared with the general population. The present findings highlight the need for the design of preventive measures and for adequate neuropsychological monitoring in these athletes. PROSPERO REGISTRATION: CRD42020195647.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.