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Patellar tendinopathy in master track and field athletes: influence of impact profile, weight, height, age and gender

  • Sports Medicine
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

Patellar tendinopathy causes significant morbidity in professional and recreational athletes. Despite the relevance of the problem, its causative factors remain poorly understood. The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to evaluate the influence of age, gender, weight, height and impact profile on developing patellar tendinopathy in master track and field athletes.

Methods

During the European Veterans Athletics Championships in Poznań in July 2006, 174 athletes (103 men and 71 women; mean age: 53.8 (SD 11.4) years, range 35–82 years) were evaluated with the VISA-P questionnaire. A fully trained orthopaedic surgeon made a diagnosis of patellar tendinopathy according to clinical criteria.

Results

There was no effect of gender upon the presence of patellar tendinopathy (n.s.). No significant track and field specialty effect upon the frequency of patellar tendinopathy was found on the VISA-P questionnaire scores. There was no effect of track and field specialty on the VISA-P score. No evidence of a statistically significant association was found between age and VISA-P score (n.s.). There was no statistically significant difference in either prevalence of patellar tendinopathy or VISA-P score between high-impact and low-impact athletes (n.s.).

Conclusion

In master track and field athletes, impact profile, weight, height, age and gender did not exert any influence on developing patellar tendinopathy.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Arndt Boshof for his valuable support during the study. This study was organized with internal funding from our Universities.

Conflict of interest

None declared.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University, Via Longoni, 83, 00155, Rome, Italy

    Umile Giuseppe Longo

  2. Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center, Linder Höhe, 51447, Cologne, Germany

    Joern Rittweger

  3. Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health, Manchester Metropolitan University, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M1 5GD, UK

    Joern Rittweger & Sally F. Gilliver

  4. Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Giorgio Garau

  5. Center of Muscle and Bone Research, Charité—University Medicine, Free and Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Biljana Radonic, Constanze Gutwasser & Dieter Felsenberg

  6. Department of Athletics, Eugeniusz Piasecki University School of Physical Education Poznań, Poznań, Poland

    Krzysztof Kusy & Jacek Zieliński

  7. Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Mile End Hospital, 275 Bancroft Road, London, E1 4DG, UK

    Nicola Maffulli

Authors
  1. Umile Giuseppe Longo
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  2. Joern Rittweger
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  3. Giorgio Garau
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  4. Biljana Radonic
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  5. Constanze Gutwasser
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  6. Sally F. Gilliver
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  7. Krzysztof Kusy
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  8. Jacek Zieliński
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  9. Dieter Felsenberg
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  10. Nicola Maffulli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicola Maffulli.

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Longo, U.G., Rittweger, J., Garau, G. et al. Patellar tendinopathy in master track and field athletes: influence of impact profile, weight, height, age and gender. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 19, 508–512 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-010-1314-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-010-1314-y

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