Footballers 50% more likely to develop dementia, study finds

Joey Veerman of PSV Eindhoven with Michiel Kramer of RKC Waalwijk during a match in September 2022. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/Rex/Shutterstock

Footballers are 50% more likely to develop dementia than the rest of the population, a study has found, fuelling calls to restrict rules around heading the ball in football.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the Lancet Public Health journal today, compared the health records of 6,000 elite footballers and more than 56,000 non-footballers between 1924 and 2019.