Dementia: UEA Researchers to test former professional footballers for disease [Research 2020]

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Researchers at the University of East Anglia are crowd-funding a new project to test former professional football players for early signs of dementia.

Recent research from the University of Glasgow has shown that retired male players are around five times more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease compared with the average person.

But little is known about exactly when players start to show signs of the disease and even less about the effects in women as the majority of research has focussed on men.

The UEA research team will use cutting-edge technology to test for early signs of dementia in men and women, that are identifiable long before any memory problems or other noticeable symptoms become apparent.

The University has launched a £1 million fundraising goal for this research, at least 10 per cent of which they hope will be crowd-funded.

Lead researcher Dr Michael Grey, from UEA’s School of Health Sciences, said: “We now know that there is much higher risk of dementia in former professional footballers, and we think this is related to repetitive heading of the ball. We do not know if this extends to the amateur level.

“So there will be many footballers out there who are understandably very worried about their futures.

“We will be working with former professional players to investigate and track their brain health over time.

“We hope to follow these footballers for the rest of their lives.

“This is the first time that this type of research has been done,” he added.

Former players in the Eastern region will be the first to take part in the SCORES project (Screening Cognitive Outcomes after Repetitive head impact Exposure in Sport) – before the study is rolled out nationally later this year.

The research team are looking for former professional players to take part.

Former Norwich City Football Club striker Iwan Roberts, who played more than 600 games for club and country, is already backing the project.
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