Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome Risk Associated with Squats: A Systematic Review

Pablo Monteiro Pereira, João Santos Baptista, Filipe Conceição, Joana Duarte, João Ferraz and José Torres Costa
Additional contact information
Pablo Monteiro Pereira: Associated Laboratory for Energy, Transports and Aeronautics (PROA/LAETA), Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
João Santos Baptista: Associated Laboratory for Energy, Transports and Aeronautics (PROA/LAETA), Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Filipe Conceição: Center for Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport (CIFI2D/LABIOMEP), Faculty of Sports, University of Porto, 4200-450 Porto, Portugal
Joana Duarte: Associated Laboratory for Energy, Transports and Aeronautics (PROA/LAETA), Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
João Ferraz: Associated Laboratory for Energy, Transports and Aeronautics (PROA/LAETA), Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
José Torres Costa: Associated Laboratory for Energy, Transports and Aeronautics (PROA/LAETA), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-29

Abstract: Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is highly prevalent; it can cause severe pain and evolve into progressive functional loss, leading to difficulties performing daily tasks such as climbing and descending stairs and squatting. This systematic review aimed to find evidence, in the literature, of squat movements that can cause or worsen PFPS. This work was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, and its protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42019128711). From the 6570 collected records, 37 were included. From these 37 articles, 27 present a causal relationship between knee flexion and PFPS, 8 describe a relationship, considering the greater existence of muscle contractions, and one article did not describe this relationship in its results. The main limitations stem from the fact that different studies used different evaluation parameters to compare the force exerted on the patellofemoral joint. Furthermore, most studies are focused on sports populations. After analysing the included works, it was concluded that all squat exercises can cause tension overload in the knee, especially with a knee flexion between 60° and 90° degrees. The main causal/worsening factors of PFPS symptoms are the knee translocation forward the toes (on the same body side) when flexing the knee, and the muscle imbalance between the thigh muscles.

Keywords: PFPS; patellofemoral; anterior knee pain; chondromalacia; musculoskeletal disorder; prevention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9241/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9241/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9241-:d:874379

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().