Knee Osteoarthritis Risk in Retired Professional Footballers

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The OA and Football Study is an epidemiological study designed to establish the prevalence of knee osteoarthritis in retired professional footballers. The study will also identify the key risk factors associated with knee osteoarthritis. The study is comprised of three phases: Phase I involves the dissemination of a questionnaire (demographic details, players history, injury and surgery and other known risk factors of OA), Phase II is a radiographic study that involves x-rays in a sample of footballers both with and without knee pain and Phase III is a case control study which will compared retired professional footballers with age-matched controls recruited from the general population in the East Midlands region.

Detailed Description
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Number of Participants: Phase I: 1000 Phase II: 855 Phase III: 500 Primary outcome: The questionnaire will contain player specific information and will include validated outcome measures such as the health status questionnaire as well as self-reported pain, recall of injury and surgery history. The results of the questionnaire will be exported firstly to Excel and subsequently, into MS Access as part of a managed database.

Official Title
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An Investigation of the Prevalence of Knee Osteoarthritis and Pain in Retired Professional Male Footballers in the United Kingdom

Conditions
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Osteoarthritis of the Knee

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Phase I Inclusion Criteria: • All current or retired professional male footballers (Registered with the Professional Footballer Association (age range 40 -80) Phase II Inclusion Criteria: Professional footballers both with and without a history of knee pain knee OA or knee surgical history No contraindications of the affected joint such as gout or rheumatoid arthritis Willingness to participate in a clinical assessment of the knee and provision of blood samples. Phase III Inclusion Criteria for controls: Over the age of 40 (age range 40 - 80) Both with and without a history of knee pain over at least the last 1 year No history of significant trauma, injury or surgery to the lower limb American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification of OA based on physical examination and clinical presentation: Pain in the knee and three of the following; over the age of 50, less than 30 minutes of morning stiffness, crepitus on active motion, bony tenderness, bony enlargement and no palpable warmth of synovium. Phase I Exclusion Criteria: Not a registered professional footballer (current or past) Inaccurate information (discrepancy with questionnaire information compared to other football records. This will be verified by the co-investigator, Dr Fernandes and Mr Sanjay Parekh) Incomplete questionnaire or duplicate questionnaire. Phase II Exclusion Criteria: Not a registered professional footballer No written informed consent to participate Phase III Exclusion Criteria: Aged 39 and under Comorbidities such as rheumatoid arthritis, gout, osteoporosis History of injury, trauma or surgery to the lower limb.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 40 Years
Maximum Age: 80 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Male

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Professional footballers<br>Retired professional footballers | |
| Control Population<br>members of the general public recruited from the east midlands region | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Self Reported Knee Pain | Questionnaire data with regards to acute knee pain, type of pain, duration of pain and knee injury and knee surgery history. | up to 12 months | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Radiographic Knee OA changes | Bilateral x rays using standardised rigs for 2 views. Postero-anterior view (30 degrees flexion, weight bearing) and skyline views. | up to 12 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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epidemiology, knee osteoarthritis, risk factors, prevalence, professional football