Centre for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is an increasing burden as our population is becoming older, more sedentary and increasingly obese. Exercise is essential for mitigating the impact of OA and greater participation in physical activity is a key target for improving the general health of the nation.

However joint injury, a possible adverse consequence of sport, contributes to the development of OA. A better understanding of the mechanisms linking sport, exercise, injury and OA is essential in order to develop strategies that will enable the whole community to safely and effectively exercise and participate in sport.

The Centre for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis will deliver four comprehensive and linked work packages with a strong emphasis on translation strategies throughout. The main aims are to deliver a bespoke risk quantification tool, phenotypic subsets and treatment packages to facilitate informed decision-making.

We’re working to take the pain away from people living with all forms of arthritis and helping them to remain active. We’ll do this by funding high class research, educating health care professionals and providing information to people with arthritis and their carers. Arthritis Research UK,

The Centre contains world leaders in all of the specialities required to make this an international centre of excellence, with expertise in: sports medicine, OA, imaging, epidemiology, modelling, statistics, clinical trials, orthopaedics, rheumatology, biomechanics, rehabilitation, sports science, patient and public involvement, nutrition, psychology, allied health disciplines, translation, education and training.

We will provide pre-clinical and clinical expertise to further the understanding of sports injury and OA.