The healthy worker effect in professional football.

We investigated the "healthy athlete effect" (HAE) in American professional football. Ages of death of professional football players who debuted prior to 1940 were obtained and differences between those ages and age-adjusted life expectancies were examined to determine if longevity increased with career length, controlling for birth year, body mass index (BMI), position, and type. Professional football players (N=1,512) lived an average of 6.1 (+/- 11.9 SD) years longer than age-matched controls from the general public. Career length significantly and incrementally increased longevity of players from an average of 5.5 years for players playing one season to 6.7 years for players playing 4 or more seasons. Both birth year and BMI had a statistically significant association with longevity, but position type did not. These data provide strong support for the healthy worker effect (HWE) in professional football.