Abstract
BackgroundMany runners suffer from injuries. No information on high-risk populations is available so far though.ObjectivesThe aims of this study were to systematically review injury proportions in different populations of runners and to compare injury locations between these populations.Data SourcesAn electronic search with no date restrictions was conducted up to February 2014 in the PubMed, Embase, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science databases. The search was limited to original articles written in English. The reference lists of the included articles were checked for potentially relevant studies.Study Eligibility CriteriaStudies were eligible when the proportion of running injuries was reported and the participants belonged to one or more homogeneous populations of runners that were clearly described. Study selection was conducted by two independent reviewers, and disagreements were resolved in a consensus meeting.Study Appraisal and Synthesis MethodsDetails of the study design, population of runners, sample size, injury definition, method of injury assessment, number of injuries and injury locations were extracted from the articles. The risk of bias was assessed with a scale consisting of eight items, which was specifically developed for studies focusing on musculoskeletal complaints.ResultsA total of 86 articles were included in this review. Where possible, injury proportions were pooled for each identified population of runners, using a random-effects model. Injury proportions were affected by injury definitions and durations of follow-up. Large differences between populations existed. The number of medical-attention injuries during an event was small for most populations of runners, except for ultra-marathon runners, in which the pooled estimate was 65.6 %. Time-loss injury proportions between different populations of runners ranged from 3.2 % in cross-country runners to 84.9 % in novice runners. Overall, the proportions were highest among short-distance track runners and ultra-marathon runners.LimitationsThe results were pooled by stratification of studies according to the population, injury definition and follow-up/recall period; however, heterogeneity was high.ConclusionsLarge differences in injury proportions between different populations of runners existed. Injury proportions were affected by the duration of follow-up. A U-shaped pattern between the running distance and the time-loss injury proportion seemed to exist. Future prospective studies of injury surveillance are highly recommended to take running exposure and censoring into account.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40279-015-0331-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Background Many runners suffer from injuriesNo information on high-risk populations is available so far though
Injury proportions were reported for sprinters in 11 studies [17, 18, 27,28,29,30,31,32, 39,40,41], nine studies examined middle-distance runners [17, 18, 27,28,29,30,31,32,33] and six studies looked at injury proportions among long-distance track runners [17, 29,30,31,32,33]
Cross-country runners were studied in 21 articles [5, 6, 16, 19,20,21,22, 24, 26, 42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53], and long-distance runners were studied in 14 articles [3, 23, 34,35,36,37,38, 54,55,56,57,58,59,60]
Summary
The aims of this study were to systematically review injury proportions in different populations of runners and to compare injury locations between these populations. Data Sources An electronic search with no date restrictions was conducted up to February 2014 in the PubMed, Embase, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science databases. The search was limited to original articles written in English. The reference lists of the included articles were checked for potentially relevant studies. Study Eligibility Criteria Studies were eligible when the proportion of running injuries was reported and the participants belonged to one or more homogeneous populations of runners that were clearly described.
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