Health among Retired Great Britain's Olympic Athletes: A cross-sectional Study of Disease and Multimorbidity

Currently, there is a paucity of long-term health data for retired athletes. This study describes the prevalence of common morbidities and multimorbidity among retired Great Britain's (GB) Olympic athletes, compared to a general population comparator group.

A cross-sectional study of retired athletes was undertaken. The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) served as the reference population. Age- and sex-standardized morbidity ratios (SMRs) and odd ratios (ORs) determined where morbidity and multimorbidity prevalence amongst retired athletes exceeded or were inferior to those of the reference population.

Retired athletes (n = 493) were less likely (SMR < 1) than controls (n = 8024) to report diabetes (0.43, 99% CI 0.22, 0.74), stroke (0.39, 99% CI 0.12, 0.90), obesity (0.35, 99% CI 0.23, 0.50), asthma (0.29, 99% CI 0.12, 0.59), lung disease (0.29, 99% CI 0.06, 0.81), angina (0.18, 99% CI 0.05, 0.46), and eye disorders (0.06, 99% CI 0.01, 0.18). In addition, abnormal heart rhythm (0.45, 99% CI 0.40, 0.54) and osteoporosis (0.46, 99% CI 0.42, 0.51) were lower in female athletes. Retired athletes were more likely (SMR > 1) than controls to report melanoma or other skin cancer (5.64, 99% CI 2.80, 10.06) and osteoarthritis (1.44, 99% CI 1.18, 1.75). There were no differences detected in cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, bowel or bladder. Multimorbidity was less prevalent among retired athletes (OR 0.50, 99% CI 0.38, 0.67).

Retired athletes had superior cardiovascular health and a lower risk of multimorbidity, but were more at risk of melanoma or other skin cancer and osteoarthritis.