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Editorial
Patellofemoral pain during adolescence: much more prevalent than appreciated
  1. M S Rathleff1,2
  1. 1Research Unit for General Practice in Aalborg and Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
  2. 2Department of Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
  1. Correspondence to Dr M S Rathleff, Fyrkildevej 7, 1, Aalborg East 9220, Denmark; misr{at}hst.aau.dk

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096328

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    Patellofemoral pain is common among adolescents

    Musculoskeletal conditions are not unique to the adult population. From the age of 5–9 years to the age of 10–14 years there is an almost fourfold increase in the years lived with disability as a result of musculoskeletal conditions.1 In Danish primary care, we see an eightfold increase in the number of contacts to general practice because of knee symptoms between 5–9 and 10–19 years.2 This makes knee pain one of the most common sites of pain in adolescents.3 Our research shows that 6–7% of the adolescent population is affected (in varying severities) by patellofemoral pain (PFP).4 ,5 This makes PFP one of the most common knee conditions among adolescents.

    Depending on how you define adolescence and adulthood, more than 95% of all research on PFP is carried out on adults. This does not match the high prevalence among adolescents. It is appreciated that children are not small adults—adolescents appear to need their own attention too.

    Who are the adolescents with PFP?

    PFP is …

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    Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/ This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

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