Journal article
A longitudinal cohort study of adolescent elite footballers and controls investigating the development of cam morphology
- Abstract:
- Cam morphology describes an asphericity of the femoral head that develops during adolescence, is highly prevalent in athletes, and predisposes individuals to future osteoarthritis. However, it’s aetiology remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to perform 3-year longitudinal follow-up of a control population and football club academy cohort to compare the change in hip and growth plate anatomy between athletes and controls. MRI and questionnaires were used to characterise change in hip and growth plate anatomy and quantify activity levels. 121 male academy footballers and 107 male and female controls participated at baseline. Footballers experienced significantly greater increases in femoral head asphericity (4.83 degrees (95% CI: 2.84 to 6.82), p < 0.001) than controls. A positive correlation existed between activity levels and change in femoral head morphology (coefficient 0.79, p ≤ 0.001). Greatest morphological change occurred in individuals aged 11–12 years at baseline, with no significant change in individuals aged 14 years and older at baseline. Cam morphology development was secondary to soft tissue hypertrophy and lateral growth plate extension. In conclusion, excessive loading of the hip joint through exercise prior to 14 years of age may result in growth plate adaptations causing cam morphology. Potential interventions may include training type and load modification in young adolescent football players.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 1.0MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41598-021-97957-2
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Scientific Reports More from this journal
- Volume:
- 11
- Article number:
- 18567
- Publication date:
- 2021-09-17
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-08-27
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2045-2322
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1194155
- Local pid:
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pubs:1194155
- Deposit date:
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2021-09-17
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Fernquest et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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