Mortality of elite football players in Portugal and spain

Abstract

The health benefits of physical activity have been demonstrated. However, there is a growing debate over the potential adverse effects of strenuous physical activity, particularly at a professional level. The goal of this work is to investigate whether elite athletes live longer than general populations, by a comprehensive survival analysis of two populations of professional foot- ball players. Lifespan data of Portuguese and Spanish football players, who have represented the national teams, were collected. The mortality of each cohort is then compared to that of the respective standard population, using data available in the Human Mortality Database and four different approaches. At the end, a comparison between the mortality of Portuguese and Spanish football players is also carried out.