The N.F.L. is making some of its former players aware of a study that found that they are likely to live longer than men in the general population. The study was commissioned by the players union and was sent by the league Tuesday to men who played in the N.F.L. before 1993.

The study did not address the cognitive and mental health issues that have recently been linked to repeated blows to the head and that currently dominate the conversation about player safety. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh), which conducted the study and released its findings in late January, said in its summary that it was now studying neurodegenerative causes of death among the same group.

Niosh began collecting data for the study in 1990, looking at 3,439 players who were in the N.F.L. for at least five seasons from 1959 to 1988. The institute told the retired players that at the time the union requested the study, several news media reports stated that N.F.L. players lived, on average, only into their 50s. The institute said it could find no scientific evidence to back that up. Its study was first completed in 1994, but Niosh said additional examination was needed and recently completed the latest study.

The government study found a lower death rate among former N.F.L. players than among men in the general population — the institute had expected to find that 625 members of the group it studied would be dead based on estimates from the general population, but instead found that 334 of the retired players had died. Former players also had a lower rate of cancer-related deaths — 85 players died from the disease, compared with the 146 cancer-related deaths researchers at the institute expected. And the rate of deaths from heart disease was lower, too — 126 players died from heart disease; Niosh had expected 186 deaths.