Abstract
The aim of this study was to analyze the health and wellness status perception in amateur half-marathon runners according to sex, age, being injured or not during the two months prior to the race, and having the support or not of qualified staff for race preparation. Six hundred and twenty-four amateur level half-marathon athletes (515 men and 107 women; 41.5 ± 10.1 years) participated in the study. One week before competing in a half-marathon, participants answered the Hooper Index and the SF-36 questionnaire. Women stated higher stress before competing in the race (p < 0.01) compared to men and the group of runners of <40 years stated greater fatigue (p < 0.05) compared to the group of >40 years. Women showed a better quality of life in physical and emotional role dimensions (p < 0.05), and the group of >40 years showed a better quality of life in the emotional role dimension (p < 0.05). The group that had suffered an injury (InjuryYes) declared greater muscle soreness (MusclSore; p < 0.01), and the group that had qualified staff (QualifStaffYes) declared a higher level of stress (p < 0.05) and fatigue (p < 0.01). The Injury No (InjuryNo) group showed a better quality of life in the physical function dimension (p < 0.01). The group that did not have qualified staff (QualifStaffNo) showed a better quality of life in the dimensions of body pain, general health, vitality, social function (p < 0.05), and mental health (p < 0.01), while the QualifStaffYes group showed better results in the dimensions of physical function and emotional role (p < 0.05). Sex, age, being injured or not during the two months prior to the race, and having the support or not of qualified staff for the race preparation can influence the health and wellness status perception.
Highlights
Road running has evolved as an activity of increasing popularity [1], and almost every weekend races of this type take place worldwide
The aim of the present study was to analyze the wellness and health status perception in amateur half-marathon runners according to sex, age, having been injured or not during the previous two months, and having the support or not of qualified staff for race preparation prior to the competition
The main profile of the amateur half-marathon runner was that of a man (82.5%), >40 years (63.3%), to have competed in 3.07 ± 0.92 races per year, to not have been injured during the two months prior to participation in the race (82.1%), and to not use qualified personnel to prepare for the event (83.2%)
Summary
Road running has evolved as an activity of increasing popularity [1], and almost every weekend races of this type take place worldwide. Athletics Federation [2] and runners participating [3,4]. This type of races involves runners of different sex [5,6] and age [4] who are or are not injured [7], who train or do not train with qualified staff, who are highly trained and looking to improve their performance, or who are amateur runners (unprofessional) with a low level of training that aim to finish the race [4,8]. Despite the high participation of runners in this type of races [3] and that long-distance events are one of the most strenuous activities [9], Int. J. Public Health 2020, 17, 5649; doi:10.3390/ijerph17165649 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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