Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Diseases in Elite Iranian Veteran Athletes

The study of retirement of professional athletes and its consequences in recent years has attracted the attention of researchers. Disease monitoring and epidemiological studies are one of the basic elements of comprehensive efforts to protect the health of athletes.

A researcher-made questionnaire was used to record musculoskeletal diseases in volleyball, football and basketball sports. In this questionnaire, important and severe musculoskeletal diseases were recorded based on priority. Registration of diseases was according to the region and type of disease.

The rate of musculoskeletal diseases per 1000 hours of training among the studied groups showed that veteran basketball athletes per 1000 hours of training (2.40±1.30) were less than volleyball athletes (3.46±1.17) and football (3.98±0.84), had musculoskeletal diseases. The most common area of the disease in all three disciplines studied was the knee (9.4% of all recorded diseases). Musculoskeletal pain was also shown as the most common disease in athletes (15.69% of all recorded diseases).

The changes that occur in the muscular-skeletal structure of people with age can make people prone to musculoskeletal diseases, and this possibility is more in people who engage in sports for the elderly than in other people. Considering that the data collection of the present study included 2 years of the corona disease pandemic, it is possible that this had an effect on the results of the research and caused changes in the type of activities and even the lifestyle of the athletes. Brought therefore, the need to study the epidemiology of musculoskeletal diseases in the post-corona era is felt.