Musculoskeletal dysfunction in physical education teachers

Objectives-To investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, espe cially symptomatic osteoarthrosis (OA) of the knee and hip, health and life style factors among physical education (PE) teachers, and whether they diff ered from the general population in these respects. Methods-The study base was all Swedish men (n=290) and women (n=281) who gr aduated from the only training college for PE teachers in Sweden, between t he years 1957 and 1965, and age matched referents, 255 men and 257 women, r andomly selected from the Swedish population register. A postal questionnai re was sent to the subjects with questions on occupational history, partici pation in sports, musculoskeletal disorders, height, weight, smoking habits , and general health. Results-The PE teachers had a higher prevalence ratio (PR) of symptomatic O A of the knee (men: 2.8 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.6 to 4.8; women: 3.2 95% CI 1.8 to 5.5) and knee injury compared with the referents. The PE teachers reported more absence from work, and the women had had to change jobs more often because of knee disorders. The prevalence ratio for symptom atic OA of the hip was 2.7 (95% CI 1.0 to 7.1) for the female PE teachers. At the age of 25 the body mass index (BMI) of male PE teachers was higher t han the male referents, but at an older age both the female and male PE tea chers had lower BMI than the referents. The participation in sports activit ies was considerably higher in the group of PE teachers. They also smoked l ess, reported less serious diseases, and better health than the referents. Conclusions-The PE teachers had a high risk of developing knee disorders, w hich entailed difficulties in continuing their work as PE teachers. They di ffered from the referents in lifestyle factors as they smoked less, were le ss overweight, and had a higher lifelong sports exposure.