On February 26th, Anikka Prien, will defend her thesis on the long term health of female elite athletes. Until now, long-term health issues in elite athletes received little attention in sports medicine research. This is an important gap in the literature, as it is known that certain sport-related injuries may predispose elite athletes to adverse long-term outcomes. Particularly scant information is available on long-term health in retired elite female athletes. In order to delay or even prevent long-term health issues in this population, more knowledge about post-career health is needed. Therefore, the aim of her thesis was to analyse the prevalence of long-term health problems and associated risk factors in retired female football players. A summary and download link is provided inside.
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Every second retired elite female football player has MRI evidence of knee osteoarthritis before the age of 50 years
This latest article to which we contributed, assessed knee health in retired female football players, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and self-report. The focus of analysis were degenerative changes of the tibiofemoral joint, and their relationship to osteoarthritis symptoms and previous knee injury. Serious degenerative changes were found in a high number of former elite female football players knees as soon as 10years after their professional career with a significant impact on their QOL.
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