Influence of sporting activities on the development of osteoarthritis of the hip: A systematic review

Osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip is a common cause of disability of the elderly in western societies. It affects 7-25% of white people over the age of 55 years. Besides pain and discomfort, hip OA has substantial economic consequences, and with the aging of the population this problem will increase.Recreational physical activities, including sporting activities, are widely encouraged as major public health initiative to reduce cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis. Also, recent research suggests that regular exercise can be helpful in reducing the discomfort and dysfunction of OA, but the risk associated with increased sporting activities are unclear.In recent years, more studies have become available investigating sporting activities and their association with hip OA. Several reviews have been published on sporting activities and hip OA. However, non of the published reviews included clearly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria on which the assessment of the strength of the evidence was based.We therefor performed a systematic review, using modern methods for systematically identifying and assessing the available studies, to provide updated knowledge for patients, doctors, and policy makers on the relation between sporting activities and the occurrence of hip OA. Similar evaluations for physical workload and obesity as risk for hip OA have been reported elsewhere.