The Prevalence of Knee Injuries among Fencing Athletes

The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of knee problems and osteoarthritis in 55 (24 male and 31 female) Iranian professional fencers.Method: In order to identify these problems among athletes, KOOS (Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score) questionnaire is applied to assess descriptive statistics for analyzing results obtained for this statistical population. Questionnaire consists of five sub-scales that totally include 42 ordinal variables. Results: In General, about %50 of athletes cumulatively declared that they had been faced with knee symptoms indifferent intervals. More than %60 of them feel pain, and almost %55 of complaints was in a fully bended knee. Of the respondents, %58.2 point to rising from a sitting position as another most experienced difficulty by their knees. Also, %5.5 had an extreme difficulty in kneeling and %40 had it in a moderate and severe level. The statistics remarkably indicate more than %50 of subjects had to modify their life style to avoid potentially damaging activities to their knees and also had been in trouble with lack of confidence in their knees, of which % 7.3 had it extremely .Conclusion: The provided data can confirm the occurrence of knee problems among professional fencing athlete of Iran’s Fencing Federation. In every subscale of the questionnaire, there is a strong correlation between the frequency of variables referring to a fully bended posture of knees and repetitive movements including it. Considering technical movements, Lunge has a considerable effect on musculoskeletal system of knees. The most affecting posture that should be addressed intently is a fully bended knee position, which is held in common with Lunge motion.

Keywords:

Knee problems , Fencing , Iranian Athletes , Osteoarthritis