According to the study, one in four former Olympians had osteoarthritis, a kind of arthritis that can cause joint changes, discomfort, pain, and impairment.
Compared to the general population, elite retired athletes who had sustained a sports-related injury had a greater risk of developing knee and hip osteoarthritis.
The athletes also had a higher incidence of lower back discomfort generally and shoulder osteoarthritis following a shoulder injury. The participants had participated in 57 Olympic-level sports, including skiing, rowing, and athletics.
For the benefit of athletes now and in the future, researchers hope the findings will contribute to the creation of novel methods for injury prevention.
The study, which is being directed by a researcher from the University of Edinburgh, is the largest international study of its type and the first to examine the effects of osteoarthritis and pain in various joints in retired elite athletes from several summer and winter Olympic sports.
3,357 retired Olympians who were roughly 45 years old were questioned by researchers on injuries and the condition of their bones, joints, muscles, and spine. Additionally, they were questioned about their diagnosis of osteoarthritis and whether they were now dealing with joint pain.
In contrast, 1,735 members of the general population who were about the age of 41 completed the same poll.
In order to compare the prevalence of osteoarthritis and pain in retired Olympians with the general population, researchers used statistical models.
The group took into account elements including injury, repeated injury, age, sex, and weight that may affect the chance of experiencing discomfort and developing osteoarthritis.
They discovered that the most vulnerable body parts for injuries in Olympians were the knee, lumbar spine, and shoulder. These were also some of the most typical sites for osteoarthritis and discomfort.
The study discovered that Olympians had a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis following a joint injury than people in the general population.
Although this did not differ from the general population, athletes also had a higher risk of upper and lower back pain, shoulder, hip, and ankle discomfort after an injury.
“High-performance sport is associated with an increased risk of sport-related injury, and increasing research suggests that retired elite athletes have high rates of post-traumatic osteoarthritis,” said Dr. Debbie Palmer of the Moray House School of Education and Sport at the University of Edinburgh.
The study “identifies differences in their prevalence that are exclusive to Olympians” and “provides fresh evidence for specific characteristics related to pain and osteoarthritis in retired elite athletes across the knee, hip, ankle, lumbar and cervical spine, and shoulder.”
According to researchers, the findings could guide prevention measures to lessen the likelihood and progression of pain and OA in retirement, as well as decisions on how to recover from and recover from injuries in order to prevent recurrences.
