The Healthy Worker Effect

NFL players have a 38% higher risk of death compared to replacement players, says Bapu. The healthy worker effect is something that we can call the "healthy worker effect" It's well described in epidemiology and you see it in industries like the NFL or coal mining. Even though our sample size was fairly large at around 4,000 people, only 144 players and 37 replacements died before the end of 2016.