TY  - JOUR
AU  - Berger, Klaus
AU  - Baurecht, Hansjoerg
AU  - Stein, Michael
AU  - Heise, Jana-Kristin
AU  - Castell, Stefanie
AU  - Weisser, Linda
AU  - Schikowski, Tamara
AU  - Oliver, Kuss
AU  - Lieb, Wolfgang
AU  - Micolajczyk, Rafael
AU  - Kluttig, Alexander
AU  - Schmitt, Börge
AU  - Stang, Andreas
AU  - Pischon, Tobias
AU  - Peters, Annette
AU  - Brenner, Hermann
AU  - Leitzmann, Michael
AU  - Krist, Lilian
AU  - Keil, Thomas
AU  - Karch, André
AU  - Meyer, Tim
TI  - SoccHealth: a health status examination of former professional football (soccer) players within the German National Cohort.
JO  - BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine
VL  - 10
IS  - 4
SN  - 2055-7647
CY  - London
PB  - BMJ Publishing Group
M1  - DKFZ-2024-02009
SP  - e002228
PY  - 2024
AB  - The long-term health effects of football (soccer) have received significant attention in recent years. While brain health is currently the focus of this interest, potential long-term risks or benefits related to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and cancer are also of interest to sports medicine professionals. However, studies assessing the overall health risks for professional football players remain scarce. We introduce 'SoccHealth', a satellite project to the German National Cohort (NAKO), Germany's largest population-based cohort study. SoccHealth examined 348 former professional football players aged 40-69 using the infrastructure and comprehensive examination programme of NAKO. The German Statutory Accidental Insurance for Professional Athletes identified and invited male players, while female players were recruited among former national team members. Details of the examination programme and the sociodemographic and career-related characteristics of the participants are described. The identical examination programme for the NAKO participants provides the opportunity to draw general population controls according to various definitions and focus on the respective research question to be analysed. This report delineates one approach to evaluate the long-term health effects of football across a broad range of diseases.
KW  - Contact sports (Other)
KW  - Football (Other)
KW  - Medicine (Other)
KW  - Method (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:39371415
C2  - pmc:PMC11448189
DO  - DOI:10.1136/bmjsem-2024-002228
UR  - https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/293942
ER  -