Rugby legends join Edinburgh Dementia Prevention study

Former rugby stars Shane Williams and Ben Kay are among 50 top former rugby players to join a dementia prevention study led by Professor Craig Ritchie (Edinburgh Dementia Prevention). Funded by the Alzheimer’s Society, the PREVENT:RFC project forms part of the Sport United Against Dementia campaign and aims to understand the links between repeated head injury and possible long-term brain damage.

700 volunteers are already involved in the UK and Ireland-wide PREVENT research project, under which they will be assessed via physical health checks, brain scans, memory assessments, lifestyle questionnaires and sample collections over a two-year period.

PREVENT:RFC, which is backed by an additional £250,000 from the Alzheimer’s Society, is one strand of the Sport United Against Dementia campaign, seeking to improve the lives of current and former players and fans.

Professor Craig Ritchie of Edinburgh Dementia Prevention said: “The PREVENT Dementia Programme seeks to identify the earliest stages of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease at a point when they could be halted or even reversed. The addition of a cohort of former elite athletes to this programme will allow us to look for issues specific to that group with a view to minimising all players’ risk of developing dementia in the future.”