Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Injury and Osteoarthritis in Baseball Players: The Long-Term Health Implications within Current and Former Professional Baseball Players

Reference Number: NDORMS 2018/4

Musculoskeletal (MSK) Injuries in baseball players are a persistent and significant problem, with the greatest incidence attributed to the shoulder, elbow, knee and trunk. These injuries are common and injury rates are increasing. These MSK injuries have been attributed to increases in overall training volume, overall cumulative work load, range of motion, and strength, among other factors. While the basic tenements of MSK injury have been identified, differing results make it unclear to what degree these risk factors should affect MSK injury risk in professional baseball players.

Musculoskeletal injury has been shown to predispose athletes to future osteoarthritis (OA) implications. Osteoarthritis can be a debilitating pathology which can cause poor joint outcomes within athletic populations. Poor joint outcomes can be defined as total joint replacement, decreased function, decreased perceived quality of life, or increased pain. The associative factors stemming from OA can have a relationship to overall long-term health. Increased OA prevalence has been shown to decrease physical activity and increase sedentary habits within patient populations. This decrease in physical activity can have a deleterious effect on basic health factors such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Although other sports such as American football, football, and cricket have investigated the long-term consequences of MSK injuries and potential development of OA in retired elite athletes, currently there is a paucity of research investigating these implications within professional baseball players. As a result, there is a need to understand and identify the multifactorial relationship between MSK injury and OA in current and former professional baseball players, and the long-term health implications of these injuries and pathologies. This investigation will allow clinicians insight into risk factors that can be utilized as a foundation for screening tools, and the design of individualized and team-based injury prevention strategies. Furthermore, these data can be employed to better educate and prescribe physical activity, exercise, and rehabilitation recommendations for retiring professional baseball players who have sustained a MSK injury.

The specific aims that will be addressed during the DPhil are:

1. To assess the multifaceted aspects that affect the prevalence of musculoskeletal injury in professional baseball pitchers.
2. To define the general health demographics of current and former professional baseball pitchers and compare them to a general population sample.
3. To investigate the risk of musculoskeletal injury on poor joint outcomes in former professional baseball pitchers.
4. To assess the implications of injury history on the long-term health of former professional baseball pitchers.
5. To compare long-term health and joint outcomes of professional baseball pitchers to comparable professional athletic populations.

This research project will require preceding professional baseball contacts that can be utilized for this investigation. This study will use a range of epidemiological and statistical techniques using data collected from professional baseball cohorts and data sets from previous studies available to the supervisor.

Themes:
Epidemiology
Osteoarthritis and Sport