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Journal Article

Citation

Lemez S, Wattie N, Baker J. Scand. J. Med. Sci. Sports 2018; 28(6): 1722-1730.

Affiliation

School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sms.13066

PMID

29394512

Abstract

Comprehensive investigations into the mortality outcomes of elite athletes can assist in decoding risk factors of premature mortality and provide avenues for exploring human health through engagement in sport. As such, the purpose of this study was to comprehensively examine lifespan trends of athletes from the four major sports in North America: Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL). We hypothesized that proportional death rates would be similar across the four sports, when standardizing the data by debut years. Overall, 17,523 out of 50,515 (34.7%) athletes were deceased as of the respective data collection cut-off date for their sport, with MLB players having the highest risk of imminent mortality. Professional basketball players generally had the highest relative proportion of death when standardizing data by debut year, although NHL and NFL players who debuted after 2005 had the highest proportion of death. In addition, a one year increase in career length significantly decreased the risk of death (HR.982, 95% CI:.978 -.985), even after adjusting for sport type (HR.977, 95% CI:.974 -.980). Meaningful significance should be considered given the historical and unique nature of the sample. Nevertheless, investigating risk of death differences through different occupational and biological variables can help highlight aversive trends to lifespan that permeate throughout high performance athlete populations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Language: en

Keywords

baseball; basketball; death; football; health; hockey; lifespan; longevity

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