Football fatalities in actuarial perspective

Abstract

The relative risk of death among school and college varsity football players was calculated as a replication of a statistical exercise published a decade earlier. The purpose of the original exercise had been to demonstrate the epidemiological necessities and pitfalls in using fatality data to approach the hazardousness of sport. The purpose of this replication was to examine the stability of the findings of that exercise. In 1964, football was found not to constitute an additional risk of death to its participants compared to the overall mortality rate of young males adjusted for comparability by exposure to a football season. Further, compared to the automobile-related mortality rate of this population, football was much safer. In 1974 (and 1975), the frequency of football fatalities has declined, and the respective actuarial ratios consequently remained favorable to football. Fatality data, however, have limited utility in the search for preventive practices in sport. What is needed is continuous surveillance of all significant injuries and illnesses, using epidemiological principles.