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


CONCLUSIONS
In master track and field athletes, impact profile, weight, height, age and gender did not exert any influence on developing patellar tendinopathy.
Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University, Via Longoni, 83, 00155, Rome, Italy.
Umile Giuseppe
UG
Longo
Joern
J
Rittweger
Giorgio
G
Garau
Biljana
B
Radonic
Constanze
C
Gutwasser
Sally F
SF
Gilliver
Krzysztof
K
Kusy
Jacek
J
Zieliński
Dieter
D
Felsenberg
Nicola
N
Maffulli
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001835:Body Weight; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017847:Patellar Ligament; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D052256:Tendinopathy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D014142:Track and Field / Q000293:injuries*