Premium
Osteoarthritis of the knee in retired, elite Australian Rules footballers
Author(s) -
Deacon Adam,
Crossley Kay,
Brukner Peter,
Bennell Kim,
Kiss Zoltan S
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1997.tb140072.x
Subject(s) - osteoarthritis , medicine , radiological weapon , physical therapy , odds ratio , cohort , body mass index , surgery , pathology , alternative medicine
Objective: To determine the functional and radiological status of knee joints of retired Australian Rules footballers compared with those of active community members. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Participants: Fifty retired elite footballers aged 34–85 years (mean, 53.7 years; SD, 11.4) from four AFL clubs and 50 age‐matched controls (35–79 years; mean, 55.7 years; SD, 12.4) who had played no contact sport since their teenage years. Main outcome measures: Severity of knee functional osteoarthritis as determined by a questionnaire, and assessment of osteoarthritis by posteroanterior weight‐bearing radiographs taken of both knees of each participant in 45‐degree flexion. Results: After adjusting for age, height, weight and body mass index, footballers had a significantly greater prevalence ( P <0.0001) and severity ( P <0.05) of functional and radiological osteoarthritis than controls. Footballers with a history of intra‐articular ligamentous and/or meniscal injury (Group 1) had a greater risk of functional osteoarthritis ( P =0.002) and radiological ( P =0.067) osteoarthritis than those with a history of collateral ligament injury or no injury (Group 2). Compared with controls, the odds of developing moderate to severe levels of functional and radiological osteoarthritis were 6.9 times (95% CI, 1.6–29.7; P =0.01) and 105.0 times (95% CI, 11.8–931.8; P < 0.0001), respectively, those in Group 1 footballers and 3.6 times (95% CI, 0.8–16.2; P =0.10) and 17.7 times (95% CI, 2.2–146.2; P =0.0075), respectively, those in Group 2 footballers. Conclusions: Elite Australian Rules footballers have a significant risk of both functional and radiological osteoarthritis, and a history of intra‐articular ligament or meniscal injury increases this risk.