Is medial shoe-ground pressure associated with specific running injuries?

19.04.2017 | Rasmus Østergaard Nielsen

René B.K. Brund, Sten Rasmussen, Rasmus O. Nielsen, Uwe G. Kersting, Uffe Laessoe and Michael Voigt are authors of the article entitled "Medial shoe-ground pressure and specific running injuries: A 1-year prospective cohort study", which recently was accepted by Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (JSAMS)

Abstract

Objectives:

Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciopathy and medial tibial stress syndrome injuries (APM-injuries) account for approximately 25% of the total number of running injuries amongst recreational runners. Reports on the association between static foot pronation and APM-injuries are contradictory. Possibly, dynamic measures of pronation may display a stronger relationship with the risk of APM-injuries. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate if running distance until the first APM-injury was dependent on the foot balance during stance phase in recreational male runners.

Design:

Prospective cohort study

Methods:

Foot balance for both feet was measured during treadmill running at the fastest possible 5000-m running pace in 79 healthy recreational male runners. Foot balance was calculated by dividing the average of medial pressure with the average of lateral pressure. Foot balance was categorized into those which presented a higher lateral shod pressure (LP) than medial pressure, and those which presented a higher medial shod pressure (MP) than lateral pressure during the stance phase. A time-to-event model was used to compare differences in incidence between foot balance groups.

Results:

Compared with the LP-group (n = 59), the proportion of APM-injuries was greater in the MP-group (n = 99) after 1500 km of running, resulting in a cumulative risk difference of 16%-points (95% CI = 3%-point; 28%-point, p = 0.011).

Conclusions:

Runners displaying a more medial pressure during stance phase at baseline sustained a greater amount of APM-injuries compared to those displaying a lateral shod pressure during stance phase. Prospective studies including a greater amount of runners are needed to confirm this relationship.

Link to publisher

Find a link to the "In press"-version of the article here  

More info?

Please do not hesitate to contact René Brund rkb@hst.aau.dk or +45 60248860 for more information regarding the manuscript.

Please note that we are unable to distribute any full-text version of the manuscript. In order to download the full-text version, we encourage you to assess the article via the link above.