Body Size Changes Among National Collegiate Athletic Association New England Division III Football Players, 1956-2014: Comparison With Age-Matched Population Controls

Abstract

Context: Collegiate football programs encourage athletes to pursue high body weights.

Objective: To examine position-dependent trends over time in body size characteristics among football players in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) from 1956 to 2014 and to compare the observed absolute and relative changes with those in age-matched male population controls.

Design: Descriptive laboratory study.

Setting: Medical school affiliated with a NESCAC institution.

Patients or other participants: Football team rosters from the 10-member NESCAC schools, available as public documents, were analyzed along with body size data from general population males aged 20 to 29 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Main outcome measure(s): Body weight, height, and calculated body mass index were evaluated using analysis of variance, linear regression, and nonlinear regression to determine the distribution features of size variables and changes associated with time (year), school, and position.

Results: Among NESCAC linemen, absolute and relative changes over time in body weight and body mass index exceeded corresponding changes in the NHANES population controls. New England Small College Athletic Conference offensive linemen body weights increased by 37.5% from 1956 to 2014 (192 to 264 lb [86.4 to 118.8 kg]), compared with a 12% increase (164 to 184 lb [73.8 to 82.8 kg]) since 1961 in the NHANES population controls. Body mass index changed in parallel with body weight and exceeded 35 kg/m(2) in more than 30% of contemporary NESCAC offensive linemen. Among skill players in the NESCAC group, time-related changes in body size characteristics generally paralleled those in the NHANES controls.

Conclusions: High body weight and body mass indices were evident in offensive linemen, even among those in Division III football programs with no athletic scholarships. These characteristics may be associated with adverse cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes. We need approaches to encourage risk modification in the postfootball lifestyles of these individuals.

Keywords: Division III football; body mass index; body weight; obesity; offensive linemen.

Figure 1.

Frequency distributions for A, Body weight and B, Height among New England Small College Athletic Conference offensive linemen for the years 1956 (n = 174) and 2014 (n = 137). Lines indicate the functions of best fit based on a normal probability distribution. Values above the arrows indicate the arithmetic mean values.

Figure 2.

Changes over time in mean values for A, Body weight and B, Height among New England Small College Athletic Conference offensive linemen, defensive linemen, tight ends, linebackers, and running backs. Data for all positions are available in Tables 2 and 3. Shown for comparison purposes are corresponding mean body weights and heights among the general population of men aged 20 to 29 years based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Figure 3.

Changes over time in the percentage of New England Small College Athletic Conference offensive linemen who had a body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m² or ≥35 kg/m². Note that the group with a BMI ≥30 kg/m² includes those with a BMI ≥35 kg/m².