Study Call Brain Health Cenderung Footballers Menyeburuk Setelah Usia 65

JAKARTA - The brain health of football players tends to be worse at the age of 65 than people in general, according to a study published Friday.

The SCORES project, a University of East Anglia-based institution in eastern England, uses an online system to assess individual-individual cognitive functions and monitor brain health declines.

The project involved 145 professional footballers, including former Crystal Palace striker Mark Bright and former Norwich club players Jeremy Goss and Iwan Roberts.

Although in the assessment it was found that footballers in the 40-50 year age group were in better condition than the general population, that didn't happen when they got old.

SCORES report data follows research by a FIELD study at the University of Glasgow, which found footballers three and a half times more likely to die from neurodegenerative diseases than the same age population.

The research also led to new calls for greater protection for footballers from concussions and long-term impacts from repeatedly headed the ball.

And while the physical exercise associated with being a footballer helps players in maintaining their brain health in the years after retiring, the benefits have decreased over time.

"When they reached the age of 65 - that's when things started to get wrong," said SCORES research leader Dr Michael Gray, as reported by Antara via AFP, Friday.

"A performance at the age above 65 deteriorates when assessments for matters such as reaction time, executive function, and spatial navigation. This is an early warning sign for deteriorating brain health."

Dr Gray added that SCORES studies are planned to follow their footballer groups for the rest of their lives.

"This will give us a very clear picture of the potential damage caused by the head of the ball," he said, adding the larger sample size was needed to draw further conclusions.

The current study covers 55 former 65-year-old footballers and older, the results compared to 27 members of the 65-year-old and over who did not play football and also with normative groups containing thousands of participants combined from other studies who have carried out the same test.

SCORES - which stands for Screening Cognitive Outcomes after Repetitive head impact in Sport - is also trying to collect more data from former female footballers, amid concerns that they could be at greater risk of developing dementia than men's footballers.

The Nobby Sties family, a member of the 1966 British World Cup champions, was among a group of players and their relatives planning to sue the English Football Association for their failure to protect players from brain injury.

Sties died in October 2020 at the age of 78 from dementia. He was found to suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive brain condition caused by repeated blows to the head.

While boxing has long been the focus of attention, as it allows blows to the head, other sports are now facing brain injury problems.

For example, Steve Thompson is one of many rugby players who took legal action against several regulatory bodies for negligence.

The 44-year-old, a member of the English team that won the 2003 Rugbi World Cup, has been diagnosed with early dementia.