Race

Abstract

Since race-specific mortality records have been kept for the US general population around 1900, differences in life expectancy have been documented favoring whites over African-Americans. While life expectancy has been significantly extended over time for both races, and the mortality gap between races has narrowed, between-race mortality differences persist. The literature on former professional basketball and football players has also documented mortality differences that favor whites. This chapter analyzes race as a potential risk factor for mortality within- and between- leagues.

A novel, multi-dimensional approach was used to determine the race of former NBA and NFL players that began with books on African-Americans athletes written by Arthur Ashe, Jr. This method was successful in capturing the races of about 86% of all cohort members. Nearly 65% and 45% of NBA and NFL players in the study cohort respectively are African-American.

Within almost all year of birth categories, the percentage of African-Americans who have died is numerically higher than whites within each league. In survival analyses that control for year of birth, African-Americans have a 59% and 34% increased risk of dying within the NBA and NFL respectively and these are both statistically significant. There is no between-league difference on mortality risk when year of birth and race are controlled.

These results provide preliminary confirmation of increased mortality risk within African-American relative to white players that’s consistent with existing literature. Multivariate analyses are required to determine whether these results persist when other key variables are controlled.