Knee Pain: Risk Factors

RISK FACTORS
(content provided by MayoClinic.com)
Weighing more than your ideal weight is one of the leading risk factors for knee pain. Excess weight increases stress on your knee joints, even during ordinary activities such as walking or going up and down stairs. It also puts you at increased risk of osteoarthritis by accelerating the breakdown of joint cartilage.

Other factors that make you more susceptible to knee pain include:

• Overuse. Any repetitive activity, from cycling a few miles every morning to gardening all weekend, can fatigue the muscles around your joints and lead to excessive loading stress. This causes an inflammatory response that damages tissue. If you don't allow your body time to recover, the cycle of inflammation and microdamage continues, putting you at increased risk of injury. It's not repeated motion itself that's to blame, but rather the lack of adequate recovery time. That's why current strength training guidelines advise against working the same muscle group on consecutive days, for example.
  
• Lack of muscle flexibility or strength. According to experts, lack of strength and flexibility are among the leading causes of knee injuries. Tight or weak muscles offer less support for your knee because they don't absorb enough of the stress exerted on your knee joints.
  
• Mechanical problems. Certain structural abnormalities, such as having one leg shorter than the other, misaligned knees and even flat feet, can make you more prone to knee problems.
  
• High-risk sports and activities. Some sports and activities put greater stress on your knees than others. Alpine skiing with its sharp twists and turns and potential for falls, basketball's jumps and pivots, and the repeated pounding your knees take when you run or jog all increase your risk of injury.
  
• Previous injury. Having a previous knee injury makes it more likely that you'll injure your knee again.
  
• Age. Certain types of knee problems are more common in young people — Osgood-Schlatter disease and patellar tendinitis, for example. Others, such as osteoarthritis, gout and pseudogout, tend to affect older adults.
  
• Sex. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, your sex may increase your risk of some types of knee injuries. Women are more prone to ACL tears than men are, and teenage girls are more likely than boys to experience a dislocated kneecap. Boys, on the other hand, are at greater risk of Osgood-Schlatter disease and patellar tendinitis than girls are.