New landmark study offers hope for former footballers at risk of dementia

A new research study will investigate possible ways to reduce dementia risk in former professional footballers. The £1.3 million, four-year BrainHOPE study - led by the University of Glasgow, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London and the wider PREVENT Dementia research collaborators - builds on the ground-breaking observations of the FIELD study, which found risk of dementia and related disorders among former professional footballers was around three and a half times higher than expected. BrainHOPE (Optimising Brain Health Outcomes in former Professional and Elite footballers) - jointly funded by The Football Association and FIFA - will use brain imaging and a range of tests to compare brain health in mid-life former footballers/ soccer players to general population control subjects already recruited to the PREVENT Dementia study. In addition, in a world's first, researchers will explore whether any differences in brain health among footballers might benefit from management of known dementia risk factors designed to try and their reduce risk. To do this, BrainHOPE will recruit in total 120 former professional footballers aged 40-59 years to compare against 700 general population controls. The effectiveness of Brain Health Clinic management will then be explored within the footballer subjects, with the brains scans and tests repeated again after two years. Prof Willie Stewart, BrainHOPE lead, consultant neuropathologist and Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow, said: "This is an incredibly important study, and we are grateful to the FA and FIFA for their support to allow it to proceed.