{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T02:38:30Z","timestamp":1788748710284,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,1]],"date-time":"2024-10-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1727740800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"German Ministry of Education and Research","award":["01KX2020A"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["01KX2020A"]}]},{"name":"German Soccer League","award":["NA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA"]}]},{"name":"Employer\u2019s Liability Insurance Association","award":["NA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA"]}]},{"name":"German Football Association","award":["NA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,10]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The long-term health effects of football (soccer) have received significant attention in recent years. While brain health is currently the focus of this interest, potential long-term risks or benefits related to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and cancer are also of interest to sports medicine professionals. However, studies assessing the overall health risks for professional football players remain scarce. We introduce \u2018SoccHealth\u2019, a satellite project to the German National Cohort (NAKO), Germany\u2019s largest population-based cohort study. SoccHealth examined 348 former professional football players aged 40\u201369 using the infrastructure and comprehensive examination programme of NAKO. The German Statutory Accidental Insurance for Professional Athletes identified and invited male players, while female players were recruited among former national team members. Details of the examination programme and the sociodemographic and career-related characteristics of the participants are described. The identical examination programme for the NAKO participants provides the opportunity to draw general population controls according to various definitions and focus on the respective research question to be analysed. This report delineates one approach to evaluate the long-term health effects of football across a broad range of diseases.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjsem-2024-002228","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,1]],"date-time":"2024-10-01T11:10:20Z","timestamp":1727781020000},"page":"e002228","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["SoccHealth: a health status examination of former professional football (soccer) players within the German National Cohort"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8966-3684","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Klaus","family":"Berger","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of M\u00fcnster, M\u00fcnster, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hansjoerg","family":"Baurecht","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Regensburg Faculty of Medicine, Regensburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael","family":"Stein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Regensburg Faculty of Medicine, Regensburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jana-Kristin","family":"Heise","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department for Epidemiology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stefanie","family":"Castell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department for Epidemiology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Linda","family":"Weisser","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tamara","family":"Schikowski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Environmental Medicine, IUF - Leibniz Research, D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kuss","family":"Oliver","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Biometrics and Epidemiology, German Diabetes Center, D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wolfgang","family":"Lieb","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Epidemiology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rafael","family":"Micolajczyk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics, Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, Halle, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alexander","family":"Kluttig","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics, Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, Halle, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"B\u00f6rge","family":"Schmitt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andreas","family":"Stang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tobias","family":"Pischon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Molecular Epidemiology Research Group and Biobank Technology Platform, Max Delbruck Centre for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Buch, Germany"},{"name":"Charite - 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