One in four retired Olympians suffering from joint pain is diagnosed with osteoarthritis, a condition that causes changes in the bone joints and can lead to discomfort, pain and disability, researchers of a new study said.

The findings of the study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine show that the athletes, who competed at an Olympic level in 57 sports, including athletics, rowing and skiing, also were at an increased risk of suffering from lower back pain overall, and shoulder osteoarthritis after a shoulder injury.

According to the researchers, the study, led by a University of Edinburgh-based researcher, is the largest international survey of its kind and the first to observe the consequences of osteoarthritis and pain in different joints from retired elite athletes across various summer and winter Olympic sports.

For their study, the researchers conducted a survey among over 3,500 former Olympians aged around 45 years about the health conditions of their bones, joints and spine and compared with over 1,700 people around 41 years of age from the general population.

The researchers also asked the participants if they were currently experiencing joint pains and if they had an osteoarthritis diagnosis.

 Using statistical models to compare the prevalence of spine, upper limb and lower limb osteoarthritis and pain in retired Olympians with the general population, the researchers found that among the retired Olympians, 23.2% suffered from osteoarthritis.

The survey further revealed that the knee was the most affected part of the body, followed by the hip and ankle.

However, though the odds of osteoarthritis did not differ between the Olympians and the general population, the former with prior knee or hip injury were more likely to report osteoarthritis than those from the general population who had suffered similar injuries.

The findings further reveal that retired Olympians were 1.5 and 1.6 times more likely to report osteoarthritis of the knee and hip respectively compared to the general population.

Explaining the findings, Dr Debbie Palmer of the University of Edinburgh’s Moray House School of Education and Sport said,  “High-performance sport is associated with an increased risk of sport-related injury, and there is emerging evidence suggesting retired elite athletes have high rates of post-traumatic osteoarthritis.”

“This study provides new evidence for specific factors associated with pain and osteoarthritis in retired elite athletes across the knee, hip, ankle, lumbar and cervical spine, and shoulder, and identifies differences in their occurrence that are specific to Olympians,” she added.

The findings of the study may help people make decisions about recovery and rehabilitation from injuries to prevent recurrences and to inform prevention strategies to reduce the risk and progression of pain and osteoarthritis in retired Olympians, the researchers said.