Former professional rugby players are 2.5 times more likely than average to experience neurodegenerative conditions like dementia, new research suggests.
A study of 412 former rugby players, by Glasgow University, found that they were 2.67 times more likely to develop dementia, over 3 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s, and 15 times more likely to develop motor neurone disease.
The results compare with a similar study of former professional footballers, conducted by the same research team led by Professor Willie Stewart, which found that they were 3.5 times more likely to die from a neurodegenerative disease.