ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Aging
Sec. Musculoskeletal Aging
The Association Between Anserine Bursa Pain and Fall Susceptibility: A Prospective Analysis of the Osteoarthritis Initiative
Provisionally accepted
- Jiangxi Dexing People's Hospital, Dexing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Anserine bursa pain (ABP) is hypothesized to correlate with early-stage knee osteoarthritis (KOA). This research seeks to investigate the link between ABP and the incidence of falls in patients diagnosed with KOA or those at heightened risk of developing this condition. Method: The study utilized two-year follow-up data derived from the Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort, a comprehensive multicenter observational investigation. Assessment of ABP was conducted through a tenderness/pain evaluation of the anserine bursa, while fall occurrences were self-reported by participants. Binary logistic regression was conducted, adjusting for confounding variables, and results were expressed as ORs along with their 95% CIs. Results: Data from 3,654 participants were analyzed, with 33.3% reporting ABP. Throughout the follow-up duration, 1,668 participants recorded instances of falls, 1,986 reported no falls, and 244 experienced recurrent falls annually. The primary outcome focused on incident falls, revealing a significant association between ABP and the odds of incident falls over the two-year follow-up (odds ratio (OR) = 1.188, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 1.021 - 1.383, P = 0.026). When recurrent falls were included as an additional outcome, ABP was found to markedly predict the odds of these incidents over the two-year follow-up (OR = 1.422, 95% CI: 1.065 - 1.898, P = 0.017). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these findings among female participants and those without a prior history of falls. Conclusion: Within individuals diagnosed with KOA or those at substantial risk for KOA, a significant association exists between ABP and increased odds of falling over the two-year follow-up.
Keywords: Accidental fall, Elderly, Osteoarthritis, Pain, Knee Joint
Received: 18 Jul 2025; Accepted: 11 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, xiao, Song, Zhang and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhengyuan Zhu, zzyzyls@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.