The very high premature mortality rate among active professional wrestlers is primarily due to cardiovascular disease.
OBJECTIVE
Recently, much media attention has been given to the premature deaths in professional wrestlers. Since no formal studies exist that have statistically examined the probability of premature mortality in professional wrestlers, we determined survival estimates for active wresters over the past quarter century to establish the factors contributing to the premature mortality of these individuals.


METHODS
Data including cause of death was obtained from public records and wrestling publications in wrestlers who were active between January 1, 1985 and December 31, 2011. 557 males were considered consistently active wrestlers during this time period. 2007 published mortality rates from the Center for Disease Control were used to compare the general population to the wrestlers by age, BMI, time period, and cause of death. Survival estimates and Cox hazard regression models were fit to determine incident premature deaths and factors associated with lower survival. Cumulative incidence function (CIF) estimates given years wrestled was obtained using a competing risks model for cause of death.


RESULTS
The mortality for all wrestlers over the 26-year study period was.007 deaths/total person-years or 708 per 100,000 per year, and 16% of deaths occurred below age 50 years. Among wrestlers, the leading cause of deaths based on CIF was cardiovascular-related (38%). For cardiovascular-related deaths, drug overdose-related deaths and cancer deaths, wrestler mortality rates were respectively 15.1, 122.7 and 6.4 times greater than those of males in the general population. Survival estimates from hazard models indicated that BMI is significantly associated with the hazard of death from total time wrestling (p<0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Professional wrestlers are more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular disease compared to the general population and morbidly obese wrestlers are especially at risk. Results from this study may be useful for professional wrestlers, as well as wellness policy and medical care implementation.
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States of America.
Christopher W
CW
Herman
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
Anna S C
AS
Conlon
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
Melvyn
M
Rubenfire
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States of America.
Andrew R
AR
Burghardt
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States of America.
Stephen J
SJ
McGregor
D000328:Adult; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061213:Mortality, Premature; D014952:Wrestling / Q000502:physiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*