Main health impairment in the middle-aged former athletes

Abstract

Objective: to obtain the main reasons for seeking medical assistance in the cohort of former athletes.Materials and methods: health records of 116 former athletes (65 males and 51 females), including 30 high qualification sportsmen were examined during 2006–2020. Mean age (M ± m) was 53.9 ± 1.8 in males and 53.9 ± 1.9 years in females. 52.4 % of males and 54.9 % of females had health records in the Center of clinical diagnostics.Results: cardiovascular pathology and musculoskeletal conditions (neck or back pain or osteoarthritis of the knee or hip) were randomly distributed among males (43.1 and 44.7 % of cases), while there was significant predominance of musculoskeletal conditions in females (62.7 %) than cardiovascular diseases (39.2 %). Gastrointestinal pathology was seen in 18.5 and 23.5 % of cases. Polymorbidity was detected in 50 % of males and in 58.6 % of females.Conclusions: age and gender differences in occurrence of cardiovascular and musculoskeletal conditions give the opportunity to realize the preventive strategy in former athletes.

Keywords

• former athletes
• cardiovascular pathology
• musculoskeletal conditions
• polymorbidity