SynthesisDeutsches Arzteblatt international2018
Bowlegs and Intensive Football Training in Children and Adolescents.
Synthesis in Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of sports participation on genu varum among youth: a systematic review.British medical bulletin · 2026Pooled it
- Two-year follow-up of varus progression in young professional football players.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Changes in aerobic capacity to prepubertal children in sports 12-month training period.Annals of medicine · 2025Article
- Lower limb injuries and their association with anthropometrics - an observational study of 381 German elite youth football players.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Analysis of Genu Varum in Young Male Professional Soccer Players.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2025Article
- Youth soccer players: patterns of injury involving the primary growth plates of epiphyses.Skeletal radiology · 2025Review
- High Prevalence of Varus Knee Malalignment in Adolescent Football Players-Clinical Lower Leg Axis Measurements of Male Junior Football Players Aged 7 to 18 Years.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- How effective is proximal fibular osteotomy in redistributing joint pressures? Insights from an HTO comparative in-silico study.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2024Article
- Influence of leg axis alignment on MRI T2* mapping of the knee in young professional soccer players.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2024Article
- Association between Soccer Participation and Liking or Being Proficient in It: A Survey Study of 38,258 Children and Adolescents in China.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Design and Implementation of Football Player Training Management System Based on Intelligent Image.Applied bionics and biomechanics · 2022Article
- Lean and mean? Associations of level of performance, chronic injuries and BMI in sport climbing.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2019Article
- In Reply.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2018Article
- The Mikulicz Line as a Parameter.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2018Article
- No Obvious Association.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2018Article
- FROM GARRINCHA'S LEGS TO NEYMAR'S LEGS: THE GENU VARUM AND VALGUM IN SOCCER. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND UPDATE.Acta ortopedica brasileiraArticle
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Erratum issuedErratum.2018
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn many countries around the world, football (association football, or "soccer" predominantly in North America) is the sport most commonly played by children and adolescents. It is widely thought that football players are more likely to develop genu varum (bowlegs); an association with knee arthritis also seems likely. The goals of this systematic review and meta-analysis are to provide an overview of the available evidence on genu varum after intensive soccer training in childhood and adolescence, and to discuss the possible pathogenetic mechanisms.
methodsWe systematically searched the PubMed, Medline, Embase, and Coch- rane Library databases for studies of the relation between leg axis development and intensive football playing during the growing years.
resultsControlled studies employing the intercondylar distance (ICD) as the target variable were evaluated in a meta-analysis, with the mean difference as a measure of effect strength. This meta-analysis included 3 studies with a total of 1344 football players and 1277 control individuals. All three studies individually showed a signifi- cant difference in the mean ICD values of the two groups. The pooled effect esti- mator for the mean difference was 1.50 cm (95% confidence interval [0.53; 2.46]). Two further studies that could not be included in the meta-analysis had similar con- clusions. Asymmetrical, varus muscle forces and predominantly varus stress on the osseous growth plates neighboring the knee joint, especially during the prepubertal growth spurt, seem to be the cause of this phenomenon.
conclusionIntensive soccer playing during the growing years can promote the devel- opment of bowlegs (genu varum) and, in turn, increase the risk of knee arthritis. Phy- sicians should inform young athletes and their parents of this if asked to advise about the choice of soccer as a sport for intensive training. It cannot be concluded, however, that football predisposes to bowlegs when played merely as a leisure activity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.