Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of the study population
| Athletes (n = 421) | Non-athletes (n = 388) | OR (95%CI) | p-value | ||
| Age (years) | Mean (SD) | 41.0 (16.7) | 50.0 (15.9) | < 0.001 | |
| Gender (male) | N (%) | 244 (58.0%) | 196 (50.5%) | 0.034 | |
| BMI (kg/m2) | Mean (SD) | 25.2 (4.1) | 27.6 (4.9) | < 0.001 | |
| Functional disability | |||||
| WOMAC score | Mean (SD) | 74.5 (19.5) | 66.6 (21.1) | < 0.001 | |
| Pain (VAS) | Mean (SD) | 4.20 (2.15) | 4.46 (2.19) | < 0.001 | |
| Type of knee complaints* | |||||
| Trauma | N (%) | 147 (34.9%) | 111 (28.6%) | 0.83 (0.60–1.14) | 0.26 |
| Bilateral | N (%) | 19 (4.5%) | 13 (3.4%) | 0.96 (0.74–1.25) | 0.76 |
| Recurrent complaints | N (%) | 159 (37.8%) | 165 (42.5%) | 0.84 (0.62–1.13) | 0.24 |
| Working diagnoses GP* | |||||
| General knee complaints | N (%) | 138 (32.8%) | 138 (35.6%) | 0.93 (0.68–1.26) | 0.62 |
| Jumper's knee | N (%) | 37 (8.8%) | 38 (9.8%) | 0.75 (0.46–1.24) | 0.27 |
| Acute distortion | N (%) | 37 (8.8%) | 20 (5.2%) | 1.92 (1.04–3.53) | 0.04 |
| Osteoarthritis | N (%) | 21 (5.0%) | 49 (12.6%) | 0.74 (0.42–1.33) | 0.32 |
| Osgood-Schlatter | N (%) | 7 (1.7%) | 1 (0.3%) | 1.87 (0.22–16.1) | 0.57 |
| Acute meniscus/ligament rupture | N (%) | 21 (5.0%) | 17 (4.4%) | 1.13 (0.57–2.25) | 0.73 |
| Chronic internal trauma | N (%) | 45 (10.7%) | 24 (6.2%) | 1.66 (0.97–2.85) | 0.07 |
| Patellofemoral pain syndrome | N (%) | 52 (12.4%) | 37 (9.5%) | 0.87 (0.54–1.40) | 0.56 |
| Chronic meniscus fracture | N (%) | 5 (1.2%) | 10 (2.6%) | 0.54 (0.18–1.68) | 0.29 |
* Analyses adjusted for gender, age and BMI. Significant differences are printed bold.