Table 1.
Key information about the studies included within the meta-analysis
| References | Number of participants | Average follow-up (years) | All-cause mortality SMR (95% CI) | CVD mortality SMR (95% CI) | Cancer mortality SMR (95% CI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sarna et al. [30] |
2613 former Finnish athletes 1712 military control participants |
44.5 | 0.92 (0.84–1.01) | 0.95 (0.81–1.09) | 0.96 (0.75–1.11) |
| Kettunen et al. [35] |
2263 former Finnish athletes 1657 military control participants |
50 | 0.98 (0.91–1.05) | # | 0.89 (0.76–1.03) |
| Lincoln et al. [41] |
9778 former NFL players US reference values |
18.5 | 0.46 (0.40–0.52)** | 0.68 (0.50–0.90)** | 0.41 (0.26–0.62)** |
| Antero-Jacquemin et al. [36] |
2403 (601 female) former French Olympians French population reference values |
20.3–43.7 |
M 0.51 (0.45–0.59)** F 0.49 (0.26–0.85)** |
M 0.55 (0.41–0.73)** Insufficient data to compute F SMR |
M 0.55 (0.43–0.69)** Insufficient data to compute F SMR |
| Marijon et al. [42] |
786 former Tour de France cyclists French population reference values |
32.5 | 0.59 (0.51–0.68)** | 0.67 (0.50–0.88)** | 0.56 (0.42–0.72)** |
| Kontro et al. [31] |
900 former Finnish athletes 900 brothers of the Finnish athletes |
77.5 | 1.00 (0.93–1.08) | # | 1.47 (1.22–1.73)** |
| Grimsmo et al. [50] |
122 endurance skiers Norwegian population reference values |
30 | 0.78 (0.50–1.05) | Not reported | Not reported |
| Antero-Jacquemin et al. [37] |
203 French Olympic rowers French population reference values |
50 | 0.58 (0.43–0.78)** | 0.41 (0.16–0.84)** | 0.59 (0.29–1.07) |
| Menotti et al. [43] | 983 (283 female) former track and field athletes | 18.6 |
Overall 0.70 (0.59–0.82)** M 0.73 (0.60–0.86) F 0.48 (0.20–0.76) |
Not reported | Not reported |
| Gajewski and Poznanska [44] |
2113 (424 Female) former Polish Olympic athletes Polish population reference values |
27 |
Overall 0.51 (0.48–0.54)** M 0.50 (0.44–0.56)** F 0.73 (0.48–1.05) |
Not reported | Not reported |
| Kujala et al. [32] |
2009 former Finnish athletes Finnish population reference values |
47.5 | 0.74 (0.69–0.79)** | 0.72 (0.64–0.82)** | ## |
| Lehman et al. [38] |
3439 former NFL players US population reference values |
33.5 | 0.53 (0.48–0.59)** | 0.68 (0.56–0.81)** | 0.58 (0.46–0.72)** |
| Waterbor et al. [51] |
958 MLB players US population reference values |
59 | 0.94 (0.88–1.00) | # | 1.05 (0.89–1.22) |
| Taioli [45] |
5389 Italian footballers Italian population reference values |
28 | 0.68 (0.52–0.86) | 0.41 (0.20–0.73) | 0.31 (0.15–0.55) |
| Schnohr [46] |
297 former Danish Olympians Danish population reference values |
66 | 0.96 (0.79–1.12) | 0.95 (0.67–1.34) | 0.94 (0.61–1.44) |
| van Sasse et al. [52] |
2129 former Dutch endurance skaters Dutch population reference population |
32 | 0.76 (0.68–0.85) | Not reported | Not reported |
| Farahmand et al. [47] |
73,622 (24,403 female) endurance ski racers Swedish population reference values |
5.5 |
Overall 0.48 (0.46–0.51) M 0.49 (0.44–0.54) F 0.45 (0.40–0.50) |
Overall 0.43 (0.35–0.51) M 0.44 (0.36–0.54) F 0.30 (0.11–0.50) |
Overall 0.61 (0.52–0.71) M 0.62 (0.52–0.74) F 0.58 (0.41–0.74) |
| Radonić et al. [39] |
233 Croatian Olympic medallists Croatian population reference values |
35 | 0.73 (0.56–0.94) | 0.61 (0.38–0.93) | 0.70 (0.40–1.12) |
| Baron et al. [33] |
3439 NFL players US population reference values |
34 | 0.53 (0.46–0.72) | 0.68 (0.56–0.81) | 0.58 (0.46–0.73) |
| Mackay et al. [40] |
7676 former professional footballers 23,028 control participants |
18 | 0.93 (0.91–0.95) | # | ## |
| Nguyen et al. [34] |
16,637 former MLB players US population reference values |
36 | 0.76 (0.73–0.78) | 0.81 (0.77–0.85) | 0.80 (0.75–0.86) |
| Kalist and Peng [48] |
2641 former MLB players US population reference values |
20 | 0.31 (0.23–0.39) | Not reported | Not reported |
| Belli and Vanacore [53] |
~ 24,000 Italian footballers Italian population reference values |
18 | 1.00 (0.90–1.10) | 0.83 (0.69–1.00) | 1.11 (0.97–1.28) |
| Gadja et al. 2008 [49] |
455 deceased polish elite footballers Polish population reference values |
– | Not reported |
Under 65–1.29 (0.90–1.68) Over 65–1.17 (0.88–1.45) |
Under 65–0.81 (0.45–1.16) Over 65–0.94 (0.55–1.33) |
CI confidence interval, SMR standardised mortality ratio, NFL national football league, MLB major league baseball, M male, F female
SMR’s in bold indicate a significant difference between the athletes and the control population (p < 0.05). #Kettunen et al. [35], Kontro et al. [31], Mackay et al. [40] all reported specific SMR values on Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) respectively, and Waterbor et al. [51] reported SMR values for Arteriosclerotic Heart Disease therefore they were removed from CVD analyses as overall CVD mortality was assessed. ##Mackay et al. [40] and Kujala et al. [32] report SMR’s for lung cancer specifically and so they were removed from the overall analysis as overall cancer mortality was assessed