Effect of maturation on overuse knee injury prevalence: A cross-sectional study of youth football players in Japan.

Introduction: Youth football players are at higher risk of knee problems due to growth. The Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire (OSTRC-O2) has been utilized to record overuse injuries. However, there are no reports investigating overuse knee problems in Japanese youth football players with the questionnaire and/or the influence of maturation status implied with peak height velocity (PHV) on the prevalence of overuse knee injuries. Objective: To investigate the prevalence of overuse knee problems in Japanese youth football players, and to ascertain the effects of maturation status on the prevalence of overuse knee problems. Methods: One hundred youth male football players (age: 13.1 ± 0.6 years; height: 160.3 ± 8.1 cm; weight: 49.6 ± 8.1 kg) were enrolled. The players were divided into pre-PHV (34 players), circa-PHV (29 players), and post-PHV (7 players) groups based on their maturity offset. The prevalence of overuse knee injuries was recorded using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire (OSTRC-O2) from December 2023 to February 2024 (for 9 weeks). The main outcomes were the prevalence of overuse and substantial overuse injuries. The Fisher exact test was performed to examine the effect of maturation on injury prevalence. Results: The response rate to the OSTRC-O2 was 88.0%. The weekly prevalence of overuse knee injuries was 11.8 ± 1.8%. The weekly prevalence of substantial overuse knee problems was 4.2 ± 1.6%. A total of 25 overuse injuries were reported. The Fisher's exact test did not find a significant association between the maturation and the incidence of overuse injuries (p = 0.858). Conclusion: The prevalence of overuse knee problems found no differences by maturation status in this study. Overuse knee problems should be monitored for longer periods to clarify the effects of maturity status on the overuse knee injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]