New study highlights potential long-term impact of sporting injuries in young people

A study from Canada has shed light on the potentially serious long-term joint health and functionality impact of sport-related knee injuries among young people.

Carried out by the University of Calgary, the research aimed to examine the association between sports injuries and outcomes relating to the development of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) three to ten years after the initial injury.

PTOA is a condition that commonly affects the knee joint. It is known that the risk of PTOA substantially increases after a joint injury, but current understanding of PTOA outcomes early in the period between joint injury and disease onset is limited.

For this research, a preliminary analysis was carried out, looking at the first year of a historical cohort study including 100 individuals between the ages of 15 and 26. Of these, 50 individuals with a sport-related intra-articular knee injury sustained three to ten years previously were assessed alongside 50 uninjured age, sex and sport-matched controls.

Results published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage revealed that injured participants performed worse in terms of their Knee Osteoarthritis and Injury Outcome Scores, as well as experiencing worse pain and quality of life.

They were also more likely to be overweight and obese, and demonstrated lower triple single leg hop scores compared to controls.

The researchers concluded: "This study provides preliminary evidence that youths and young adults following sport-related knee injury report more symptoms and poorer function, and are at greater risk of being overweight or obese three to ten years post-injury, compared to matched uninjured controls."

It is hoped that improved understanding of the interval between joint injury and disease onset can inform secondary prevention strategies aimed at preventing and/or delaying PTOA progression.

The Arthritis Research UK Centre for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis was launched almost two years ago with the aim of reducing the incidence of osteoarthritis caused by sports injury in both recreational and professional sports people, and to understand why some sport and exercise-related injuries develop into debilitating osteoarthritis in later life. 

View article...