At what age do children and adolescents develop lower limb tendon pathology or tendinopathy?

This study examined the prevalence of lower limb tendon pathology and tendinopathy in children and adolescents, and the factors associated with these conditions in this population.

The authors searched the following databases for studies to include in this review: MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, Scopus, the Web of Science and the Allied and Complementary Medicine Database. Studies were included if the prevalence of lower limb tendon pathology and/or tendinopathy were reported in humans under the age of 18 years.

Studies were divided according to the method of diagnosis and further divided into studies that reported prevalence data by tendon and those that reported prevalence data for each participant.

The authors found that tendinopathy is present in children and adolescents, and increases in prevalence with age up to 18 years. Male sex is significantly associated with tendinopathy in studies that report tendinopathy by tendon.