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Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffA number of factors can increase your risk of having knee problems, including:
- Excess weight. Being overweight or obese increases stress on your knee joints, even during ordinary activities such as walking or going up and down stairs. It also puts you at increased risk of osteoarthritis by accelerating the breakdown of joint cartilage.
- Overuse. Any repetitive activity, from cycling a few miles every morning to gardening all weekend, can fatigue the muscles around your joints and lead to excessive loading stress. This causes an inflammatory response that damages tissue. If you don't allow your body time to recover, the cycle of inflammation and microdamage continues, putting you at increased risk of injury. It's not repeated motion itself that's to blame, but rather the lack of adequate recovery time. That's why current strength training guidelines advise against working the same muscle group on consecutive days.
- Lack of muscle flexibility or strength. A lack of strength and flexibility are among the leading causes of knee injuries. Tight or weak muscles offer less support for your knee because they don't absorb enough of the stress exerted on your knee joints.
- Lack of neuromuscular control. Studies have shown that some people who have abnormal movement patterns of the leg during activities such as squatting and stepping off a step may be predisposed to knee injury.
- Mechanical problems. Certain structural abnormalities, such as having one leg shorter than the other, misaligned knees and even flat feet, can make you more prone to knee problems.
- High-risk sports and activities. Some sports and activities put greater stress on your knees than do others. Alpine skiing with its sharp twists and turns and potential for falls, basketball's jumps and pivots, and the repeated pounding your knees take when you run or jog all increase your risk of injury.
- Previous injury. Having a previous knee injury makes it more likely that you'll injure your knee again.
- Age. Certain types of knee problems are more common in young people — Osgood-Schlatter disease and patellar tendinitis, for example. Others, such as osteoarthritis, gout and pseudogout, tend to affect older adults.
- Sex. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, your sex may increase your risk of some types of knee injuries. Teenage girls are more likely than are boys to experience an ACL tear or a dislocated kneecap. Boys, on the other hand, are at greater risk of Osgood-Schlatter disease and patellar tendinitis than girls are.
