Citation

Bianco M, Fabbricatore C, Sanna N, Fabiano C, Palmieri V, Zeppilli P. Int. J. Sports Med. 2007; 28(8): 697-702.

Affiliation

Department of Sports Medicine, Catholic University, Rome, Italy. massimiliano.bianco@fastwebnet.it

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Georg Thieme Verlag)

DOI

10.1055/s-2007-964863

PMID

17436206

Abstract

Moderate exercise and intense physical training are associated with increased life expectancy (LE). Boxing is characterized by intentional and repetitive head blows, sometimes causing brain injury, possibly reducing LE. We examined a sample of male athletes born between 1860 and 1930 selected from the international "hall of fame" inductees in baseball (n = 154), ice hockey (n = 130), tennis (n = 83), football [soccer] (n = 81), boxing (n = 81), track and field (n = 59), basketball (n = 58), swimming (n = 37) and wrestling (n = 32). In boxing, we analyzed the number of disputed bouts/rounds and career records. Sports were also analyzed according to physiological demand and occurrence and kind of contact (intentional, unintentional). The Kaplan-Meier product limit method was used to compare survival curves (significance: p

Language: en