WHAT DO RECREATIONAL RUNNERS THINK ABOUT PREVENTING ANOTHER RUNNING-RELATED INJURY? A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF THEIR PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES

K. Pannekoek1, K. Cloosterman1, D. Schiphof1, M. van Middelkoop1
1Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Department of General Practice, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Background: Effective injury prevention measures for running-related injuries have not yet been identified. Runners with a previous injury seem to be at high risk to develop a new injury but also think differently about injury prevention. More insight into how these runners behave as they do and how they deal with injury prevention might help to develop effective injury prevention programs that are supported by the target population.

Purpose: To explore the perceptions and attitudes on injury prevention in recreational runners with a running-related injury history.

Methods: This study had a descriptive design with a qualitative method and an inductive approach. Twelve individual semi-structured interviews were conducted on Teams with male (n=8) and female (n=4) runners. The data from this qualitative study was analyzed according to the Qualitative Analysis Guide of Leuven (QUAGOL).

Results: We were able to identify three main topics related to injury prevention in these runners; pain (beliefs), training load management, and input of a health care professional or athletic trainer. It is important to mention that there were differences between participants on these three topics. The perceptions and attitudes seem to be influenced by the way participants ​apply self-management in dealing with and preventing a running-related injury. But previous experience, opinions of peers and experts, or information derived from online sources also seemed important.

Conclusions: This study shows that previous-injured runners differ in their perceptions and attitudes about preventing another running-related injury. Future prevention programs should respond to the different beliefs of pain and the ability to manage training load and needs to be personalized. All previous injured runners high value the expertise of health care professionals and athletic trainers.

Implications: It is important to consider the runner's perception and attitudes regarding injury prevention in the development of injury prevention programs. Based on our outcomes, we recommend that preventive programs focus on training load management by which runners manage their complaints and injuries. Information on, for example performing the right exercises needs to be personalized and should focus on the specific complaint. Runners consider themselves perfectly capable of managing their complaints through self-management but do see the importance of an external expert in making choices regarding training or performing exercises.Information about injury prevention delivered by these experts is of great importance in future prevention programs because runners with RRI in their history value this expertise.

Funding acknowledgements: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Keywords:
Running-related injury
Prevention
Perceptions and attitudes

Topics:
Sport & sports injuries
Musculoskeletal
Orthopaedics

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Committee: Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW)
Ethics number: grant number 50- 53600- 98- 104

All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.

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