sport news FA-supported dementia study reporting there is NOT a link between the disease ... trends now
Researchers on a study looking at the impact of head injuries on former footballers - one supported by the Football Association and England manager Gareth Southgate - have been accused of a 'conflict of interest' and 'marking their own homework' after their initial findings were published.
The Health and Ageing Data in the Game of Football (HEADING) study assessed the link between exposure to heading a football, other impacts to the head, and concussions with cognitive function among 199 ex-male professionals in England aged over 50.
In its first reported findings - which were published last month and are yet to be peer reviewed - the researchers said: 'This study generally does not support an association between exposure to heading a football and poorer cognitive function among former male professional players.'
It added: 'An association between the number of concussions sustained and poorer cognitive function was present, although the effect size is relatively small.'
Many leading neurological scientists across the world are of the opposite opinion.
A new study does not support the link between heading a football and poorer cognitive function. Jeff Astle (pictured in 1966) died in 2002 aged 59 with early-onset dementia
Man United and England icon Sir Bobby Charlton was diagnosed with dementia before passing
Former England internationals Sir Bobby Charlton, his brother Jack, Nobby Stiles and Jeff Astle were all diagnosed with forms of dementia prior to their tragic passings.
Astle died in 2002 aged 59 with early-onset dementia. A coroner recorded his cause of death as industrial disease owing to the repeated heading of a ball.
In 2020, Stiles' family told Mail Sport his brain had been severely damaged by his on-field career after he had suffered from dementia. Stiles' brain was donated for analysis to a study led by Dr Willie Stewart. In 2019, research led by Stewart found ex-footballers were three-and-a-half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the population.
In 2020, an application - which remains ongoing - was lodged with the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) to have dementia in football acknowledged as an industrial disease.
Two of the HEADING study's co-authors, John Cherrie and Damien McElvenny, remain members of the IIAC while another - Neil Pearce - was also previously part of the group.
Their failure to initially declare their IIAC roles while working on the HEADING study has exasperated James Drake of the Drake Foundation who funded the project to the tune of £500,000.
'I am very concerned three co-authors of the much-delayed football HEADING study are or have been recent IIAC members and have not declared it in the paper awaiting peer review. Marking one's own homework is never a good thing,' Drake told Mail Sport.
'When it comes to the serious matter of evaluating whether dementia should be an
