A new study analyzing health records of former NFL players finds they have higher death rates from neurodegenerative diseases than expected. The research reviews data from 19,824 players who participated in at least one NFL game between 1960 and 2019. The study reports that NFL players are about four times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease, including conditions such as dementia, compared with baseline expectations.
One outlet describes the findings as “immense,” characterizing the scale of the increase as substantial. Another outlet similarly reports a roughly fourfold increase in dementia-related rates and frames it as coming from a “presumed environmental cause,” without attributing it to a single specific factor in the summarized material.
The reports focus on mortality risk and the study’s overall association, rather than providing details about individual contributing exposures, controlling for all possible confounders, or the exact comparison group used. The conclusions presented in the coverage emphasize a strong association between playing NFL football and increased risk of death from neurodegenerative disease.
