Almost half of all recreational runners incur injuries, mostly relating to knees, calves or Achilles tendons, and the level of risk is equally high whatever your age, gender or running experience.

Doctoral student Jonatan Jungmalm recruited a little over 200 recreational runners from the list of entrants for the Goteborgsvarvet Half Marathon and monitored them over a period of one year. To take part in the study, they had to have been running for at least a year, have run an average of at least 15 km per week over the past year and have been injury free for at least six months. The participants were men and women in the age range 18-55.

Calculation shows injury for half of runners

Over the year of the study, the recreational runners filled in a training diary, entering information about how far they ran each day and whether they felt any pain. Those who suffered sudden injury or felt pain for a prolonged period were examined by a sports doctor.

«A third of the participants were injured over the course of the study. But if you also take account of the participants who dropped out of the study, it is reasonable to assume that almost half of all recreational runners injure themselves in a year,» states Jonatan Jungmalm.

Jonatan used a particular statistical method to calculate the proportion of injured runners, taking into account the rate of dropout that is common in studies based on voluntary participation.

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