Perceived Effects of Running/Jogging: A Social Survey of Three Clubs

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine the perceived effects of running jogging on a regular basis. A mail-out structured questionnaire was sent to 984 members of three running clubs. The 454 regular runners who responded perceived changes relative to physical, emotional, and attitudinal factors. There was the perception of an increase in physical well-being, an increase in emotional well-being, a reduction in number of illnessess, an increase in criticism of those who are non-runners and those who are physically out-of-shape. The results varied when age, education, average miles of running per week, average hours of running per week, and average number of years of running were controlled. Age was positively associated with emotional improvement. Criticism of non-runners and the physically out-of-shape was correlated positively with number of miles and number of hours of running. However, the number of years of running produced an inverse relationship with criticism. These findings support some of the popular and scientific literature and contribute to the sociological concept of "social group".

A Scoping Review of the Relationship between Running and Mental Health

“…Another paper found that five variables significantly predicted risk of exercise addiction in runners: weekly time spent running, childhood PA, lower educational attainment, anxiety and loneliness [75]. The remaining four cross-sectional studies of runners only found that, since participating in running, they had better emotional well-being, relief of tension, self-image and self-confidence, mood, depression, aggression and anger, anxiety and happiness, but not all reported significance or effect size [31,35,44,48,51].…”

“…Jorgenson et al [31] (1981) USA Cross-sectional n = 454 regular runners; 390 males and 64 females; majority aged 30-39…”

“…Nineteen studies only included runners [30,31,34,35,39,44,48,49,51,55,58,[65][66][67]70,[74][75][76] and compared different levels and types of running. Some studies found a positive association with higher self-identity runners and low levels of depression and high self-efficacy [30,[65][66][67]74].…”

Customer Loyalty in Recreational Long-Distance Races: Differences Between Novice and Experienced Runners

“…Academics working in the field of sports management and professionals working in the racing and sports tourism industry need a solid knowledge base on runners. It is crucial for them to understand runners’ opinions and willingness to attend races, as this could have major implications not only for event organizers, but also for runners’ physical performance and even for the social capital generated by organizing and participating in races ( Jorgenson and Jorgenson, 1981 ; Shipway et al, 2013 ; Sato et al, 2015 ; Hambrick et al, 2018 ; Larsen and Bærenholdt, 2019 ).…”