Disability levels of college-aged men with a history of Osgood-Schlatter disease

Abstract

Osgood-Schlatter disease (OSD), which is a traction apophysitis of the tibial tuberosity, is one of the most common orthopedic conditions that adolescent athletes will encounter. Adolescent athletes with OSD typically present with pain, swelling, and tenderness over the tibial tuberosity that worsens with athletic activity. Few published reports have described the effects of OSD on the disability levels of athletes beyond adolescence. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the disability levels of college-aged male subjects (n = 25, mean age = 20.3 years) who have a history of OSD and compare their status to a control group of healthy male subjects with no history of OSD (n = 25, mean age = 20.4 years) matched by intercollegiate sport and age. The mean time from being diagnosed with OSD to participation in this study was 7.6 +/- 2.4 years for subjects in the OSD group. All subjects completed the Knee Outcome Survey Activities of Daily Living Scale and Sports Activity Scale, which served as our measure of disability. The results indicated that subjects with a history of OSD scored significantly lower than subjects in the control group on both the Knee Outcome Survey Activities of Daily Living Scale and Sports Activity Scale, indicating that subjects with OSD experienced higher levels of disability than subjects in the control group.