Incidence of injuries and associated factors in treadmill runners: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

To determine the incidence of injuries in exclusive treadmill runners and the main associated factors in 24 weeks. Methods: The incidence of injuries was investigated every two weeks by an electronic form. To analyze the associated factors, muscle force output, range of motion, and flexibility were investigated. To perform a descriptive analysis (baseline) and injury predictive factors (regression), we divided runners into two groups, injured and uninjured. Comparisons between groups were assessed evaluated by Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney, or Chi-square test. The relationship between associated factors and incidence of injuries was estimated by Logistic regression analysis. The model's accuracy was assessed by the receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC). Thirty-seven runners completed the study. Results: The incidence of injuries was 6.8 per 1,000 hours of exposure. Among the associated factors, we highlight that runners with higher hip flexor force output were 4 times more likely not to injure (OR 4.0; CI 95% 1.03-16.23) and lower knee extensor force output was related to a greater chance of injury (OR .24; 95% CI .65-.93). The area under the ROC curve was 0.84. Conclusion: The incidence of injuries in treadmill runners was high. The factors associated with the injuries were the output of the flexor strength of the hip and the extensor force of the knee.

Running towards injury? A prospective investigation of factors associated with running injuries

“…Clinical measures such as strength [ 12 ], range of motion [ 10 , 13 ] and foot positioning [ 10 ] have widely been hypothesised to be associated with injury, with modification via strengthening, stretching and orthoses suggested in injury intervention methods [ 46 ]. We found just one clinical measure, the navicular drop test, to be associated with injury.…”

“…Lower strength has been suggested to be associated with RRI, with strengthening a target of injury prevention interventions [ 46 ]. However, research surrounding the association between prospective RRIs and strength has largely been inconsistent [ 11 , 12 ]. The present study indicates that isometric strength in a fixed position is not associated with RRI.…”

“…Factors that affect loading or the ability of the body to tolerate loading have also been the subject of RRI research. These range from high-resource, time-consuming measures of running technique using motion analysis systems [ 2 ], to low-cost, easily implementable clinical measures such as: range of motion (ROM) [ 9 , 10 ], foot positioning [ 10 ] and muscle strength [ 11 , 12 ]. Furthermore, training history [ 1 ], previous injury history [ 1 , 13 ], sex [ 2 ], age [ 14 ] and BMI [ 1 ] may also affect the load and tissue integrity.…”