Is There a Relationship between Sport and Osteoarthritis?

To investigate the relationship between recreational and professional sports and osteoarthritis

To carry out the present review article, we conducted a literature search in PubMed and Sportdiscus databases in the past three decades (1987 to 2017). The keywords used in the search process included ‘Osteoarthritis’, ‘Athletes’ and ‘Elite’, and ‘Sports’ with their related synonyms. Also, to search Persian articles, we used MAGIRAN, SID, and ISC databases.

Considering the inclusion criteria, 29 articles (28 English and 1 Persian) were selected: 13 articles were about the relationship between osteoarthritis and recreational sport and 16 articles investigated the osteoarthritis among elite athletes. Out of 13 articles on recreational sports, 5 prospective studies investigated OA among adult runners and 8 case control studies investigated OA in the knee and hip joint of other athletes. Out of 16 articles addressing professional sports, 7 articles investigated OA of lower extremity joints in former elite soccer players, 1 article investigated knee joint OA in former table tennis players, 1 article inspected shoulder joint among retired tennis players, 1 article investigated ankle joint OA in former volleyball players, and 1 article investigated OA among elite runners.

Recreational sport activities with moderate intensity, regardless of the sport, is not a risk factor for radiological and clinical OA and due to undeniable advantages of athletic activities, people should be encouraged to pursue them. Radiographic OA seems to increase among general population and elite athletes in certain team and power sports (football, rugby, wrestling, weightlifting, and racket sports) if the conditioning and competitions are intensive. Furthermore, it does not seem that elite endurance athletes are at the risk of OA. The risk of OA increases with repetitive and high-impact sports. This risk is highly associated with joint injury.