Elite football and rugby sportspersons are taking part in the PREVENT Dementia research program in order to better understand the risks between dementia and the sports Image There has been a lot of media attention in recent months about the potential risks of dementia associated with playing both rugby and football. Edinburgh Dementia Prevention (EDP) is delighted to share that, with support from the Alzheimer’s Society, PFA Scotland, FIFA and the FA, recruitment to the PREVENT dementia research programme has reopened to individuals who are ex-professional or elite football or rugby players. 60 rugby players and 140 football players will be recruited to the study to assess whether there might be differences in dementia risk to these groups of individuals. A BBC news report on the reopening of the study can be found here, and a Sky Sports news article can be read here. The inclusion of elite sportspersons will add further data to the existing 700 PREVENT participants who have been through the research program. The data will be used not only to understand the impact of head injury to dementia risk, but how numerous other lifestyle, cognitive and health markers contribute to the risk of brain health and dementia. To learn more about PREVENT see Our Research and the PRVENT Dementia website. Publication date 24 Feb, 2022
