Retrospective cohort study of professional footballers in England v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
MORSE (MORtality Study of former professional footballers in England and Wales) Study
IRAS ID
328044
Contact name
Damien McElvenny
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Colt Foundation
Research summary
We will use the Barry Hugman database (http://barryhugmansfootballers.com/) as suggested by the Professional
Footballers' Association to identify all professional footballers in England and Wales since World War 2. We would
like to link this data set to the mortality database held by NHS England so that we can understand the mortality
experience of this cohort of footballers. This will allow us to particularly understand (as has been suggested by other
epidemiological studies) whether mortality from neurological disorders is higher among former professional
footballers aged over 40 compared with the general population for England and Wales. In addition we will make use
of an exposure matrix which has been developed for an earlier and completed study of professional footballers to
compare those who have headed footballs more during their careers with those who have headed them less and
determine if this is related to mortality from neurological disorders.REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0784
Date of REC Opinion
18 Sep 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion