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ABSTRACT
There is evidence that elite soccer players live longer than general population, but there is no information on soccer coaches and referees. We aimed to analyze the longevity of both professionals, comparing them with soccer players and with general population. In this retrospective cohort study, a total of 328 male Spanish soccer coaches, 287 referees, and 1230 soccer players, all born before 1950, were divided in two cohorts, matched 2:1 with coaches and referees. We compared the survival of the cohorts with the Kaplan–Meier estimator and significance with the log-rank test. We calculated hazard ratios of death for coaches and referees compared with male Spanish general population of the same period. Differences in survival among cohorts were found, but they did not reach statistical significance. The estimated median survival time was 80.1 years (95% CI 77.7–82.4) for referees, 78 years (95% CI 76.6–79.3) for coaches, 78.8 years (95% CI 77.6–80) for referees matched with players, and 76.6 years (95% CI 75.3–77.9) for coaches matched with players. Both coaches and referees had lower mortality than general population, but this advantage disappeared after 80 years of age. We found no differences in longevity among Spanish elite soccer referees, coaches and players born before 1950. Both coaches and referees had lower mortality than general population, but this advantage disappeared after 80 years of age.
Acknowledgements
This research received no specific financial assistance. MASL was funded during the development of this study by the Ministry of Universities under application 33.50.460.A.752 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR through a Margarita Salas contract from the University of Vigo.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The data used to identify the participants is freely available at https://www.bdfutbol.com/en/index.html. The data used in the statistical analysis are available upon request from the authors.