Sports and fitness activities: the negative consequences.

Participation in sports and fitness activities offers potential health benefits for individuals of all ages, such as combating obesity and osteoporosis, as well as enhancing cardiovascular fitness. Negative consequences of musculoskeletal injuries sustained during sports participation in childhood and adolescence may compromise function in later life, limiting the ability to experience pain-free mobility and engage in fitness-enhancing activity. Increasingly successful management of sports-related injuries has allowed more athletes to return to participation. However, even effective early management of meniscal or anterior cruciate ligament injury does not minimize or preclude the increased likelihood of developing subsequent osteoarthritis. In addition, even in the absence of injury, vigorous participation in sports and fitness activities during childhood and adolescence increases the likelihood of developing osteoarthritis. It is ironic that return to vigorous sports participation has been adopted as an important measure of success of treatment, yet few efforts have been made to document long-term consequences of continued participation. Awareness of the long-term consequences of intensive sport and fitness activities allows the physician to help patients make informed decisions about the types and levels of activity they choose.