ETIOLOGY AND PREVENTION OF LOWER EXTREMITY RUNNING INJURIES: A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE 5

Abstract

Many people run for a variety of reasons, e.g. pleasure, health, relaxation, as part of training for other sports, etc. However many runners sustain injuries of the lower extremity, the vast majority being of an overuse type. Reported incidences of overuse lower extremity running injuries vary from 24% to 77%. When exposure time is taken into account the incidences vary from 2.5 to 12.1 injuries per 1000 hours of running. In order to prevent such running injuries it is necessary to have knowledge of the etiological factors and the mechanisms that predispose and lead to injury. This knowledge can be gained from epidemiological studies. Also the outcome of biomechanical and clinical studies will add to our knowledge base. Finally when, based on this knowledge, attempts are made to prevent lower extremity overuse running injuries it is necessary to take health educational principles into account. When looking at the literature it appears that in order to prevent running injuries there is little exchange between the above mentioned fields of expertise; i.e. epidemiology, biomechanics, clinical medicine and health education. Purpose of this symposium is to bring together experts from these 4 different scientific domains in order to provide a multi disciplinary rationale for the prevention of lower extremity overuse running injuries.