Kumanu Tāngata: The aftermatch project
Timeframe
2021–2023
Funder
World Rugby Limited & New Zealand Rugby Union Incorporated
The New Zealand Rugby Foundation
COMPASS staff
Stephanie D'Souza (Principal Investigator)
Associate Professor Barry Milne
Dr Chao Li
Collaborators
The University of Auckland
Professor Thomas Lumley
Professor Susan Morton
New Zealand Rugby
Ken Quarrie
Description
This collaborative project with New Zealand Rugby investigates the long-term health and social outcomes, e.g. mortality, neurodegenerative disease, cardiovascular disease, and mental disorders, associated with playing professional rugby union. By linking anonymised player data to the IDI, we use a novel case-control design that involves matching players to demographically similar males in the population. This project is the first to use nationwide administrative data to explore longitudinal health outcomes in rugby players, giving New Zealand and World Rugby important evidence of the long-term risks involved in the sport.