School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
Flutter Entertainment PLC, Dublin, Ireland.
Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2021 Apr;31(4):875-883. doi: 10.1111/sms.13900. Epub 2021 Jan 18.
There are concerns surrounding the risk of neurodegenerative diseases associated with football (soccer) heading. The aim of this study was to conduct analysis on the incidence and mechanism of heading in the "Big 5" professional European football leagues (Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League, La Liga and Serie A) and one lower tier professional league (English Championship) from 2016/17 to 2018/19. Match event data from 7147 matches were obtained from Opta Sports data feed. The data were parsed to extract header event details including player position, coordinates on the field, header type and preceding match event (including distance football travelled). Incidence data were reported as headers per match or match headers per player. Medians and interquartile ranges (IQR) were reported and either the Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis test were conducted for comparisons between positions and leagues. In the "Big 5" leagues, the most headers per match occurred during the Premier League (111.2 headers per match). However, the lower tier English Championship had the highest number of headers per match overall (139.0 headers per match). In all leagues, defenders had the greatest median number of match headers per player (P < .001). The highest median distance travelled by the football during a preceding match event was for goal kicks (57.5 m; IQR 53.7-61.1). The findings add necessary information for current longitudinal studies aiming to understand the potential link between football heading and neurodegenerative diseases. These studies should account for league, playing position, and level of play.
人们对与足球（足球）头部相关的神经退行性疾病的风险感到担忧。本研究的目的是分析 2016/17 年至 2018/19 年“五大”欧洲职业足球联赛（德甲、法甲、英超、西甲和意甲）和一个较低级别职业联赛（英冠）中头部的发生率和机制。从 Opta Sports 数据馈送中获得了来自 7147 场比赛的比赛事件数据。对数据进行解析以提取标题事件详细信息，包括球员位置、场上坐标、标题类型和前一场比赛事件（包括足球行驶的距离）。发病率数据以每场比赛的头球或每场比赛的头球球员报告。报告中位数和四分位距（IQR），并在位置和联赛之间进行 Mann-Whitney U 检验或 Kruskal-Wallis 检验进行比较。在“五大”联赛中，每场比赛的头球次数最多发生在英超联赛（每场比赛 111.2 个头球）。然而，较低级别的英冠联赛总体上每场比赛的头球次数最多（每场比赛 139.0 个头球）。在所有联赛中，后卫的场均比赛头球数中位数最高（P<.001）。在前一场比赛事件中，足球行驶的中位数距离最高的是球门球（57.5m；IQR 53.7-61.1）。研究结果为目前旨在了解足球头球与神经退行性疾病之间潜在联系的纵向研究提供了必要信息。这些研究应考虑联赛、比赛位置和比赛水平。
