Preventing Osteoarthritis after a Sport-related Knee Injury

By 2040, 25% of Canadians will have osteoarthritis (OA), a disabling joint disease. This number will be as high as 50% for those who hurt their knee playing youth sport. Currently, the treatment of youth sport knee injuries focuses on return to sport. Few seek care beyond their injury, and little effort is made to prevent OA. Stop OsteoARthritis (SOAR) is a new physiotherapy program to reduce the risk of OA after a youth sport knee injury.

Designed with a team of patients, clinicians and researchers, SOAR teaches active youth how to manage their OA risk, and improve knee muscle strength and physical activity levels after injury. SOAR consists of a knee camp, personalized exercises, wrist-worn activity-tracker and weekly counselling.

This research will assess what youth with a sport knee injury think about SOAR and how well SOAR works to reduce muscle weakness and inactivity – proven risk factors for knee OA. We will also explore new ways to monitor knee health after injury.

The SOAR team will continue to include patient and clinician partners to make sure that SOAR is practical, and relevant. It is expected that SOAR will improve the health of young British Columbians who have a sport knee injury and reduce their risk for OA.