Training and Injury Prevention Platform for Sports
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Luxembourg Institute of Health

RRI4 - End of recruitment

The Sports Medicine Research Laboratory (LIH) has launched a new large study on running. This study is the first to investigate the running technique and the risk of injury in a cohort of over 800 runners! This is one of the largest groups of runners observed over a period of several months. The aim of the study is to identify the influence of the damping properties of the running shoes, the body weight, as well as the running technique on the risk of injury.

The recruitment phase is completed now. More than 870 participants were included in the study. The latter will finish at the end of July 2018. The study conclusions will be available on this site by the end of the year.

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In collaboration with
Ministère des Sports
COSL
Centre Médical Olympique Luxembourgeois

Influence of midsole hardness of standard cushioned shoes on running-related injury risk

Theisen D, Malisoux L, Genin J, Delattre N, Seil R, Urhausen A.
Sports Medicine Research Laboratory, Public Research Centre for Health, , Luxembourg, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg.

BACKGROUND:

In this double-blind randomised controlled trial, we tested if leisure-time runners using shoes with less compliant midsoles have a higher running-related injury (RRI) risk.

METHOD:

We provided 247 runners with standard running shoes having either a soft study shoes (soft-SS) or a hard study shoes (hard-SS)midsole and followed them prospectively for 5 months regarding RRI. All information about sports practice and injuries was uploaded on a dedicated internet platform and checked for consistency and completeness. RRI was defined as any first-time pain sustained during or as a result of running practice and impeding normal running activity for at least 1 day. Cox proportional hazards regressions were used to identify RRI riskfactors.

RESULT:

The type of study shoes used for running was not associated with RRIs (HR=0.92; 95% CI 0.57 to 1.48). The hard-SS had a 15% greater overall stiffness in the heel region. The two study groups were similar regarding personal and sports participation characteristics, except for years of running experience, which was higher (p<0.05) in the hard-SS group. Global RRI incidence was 12.1 RRI/1000 h of running. No between-group differences were found regarding injury location, type, severity or category. Nevertheless, the adjusted regression model revealed positive associations with RRI risk for body mass index (HR=1.126; 95% CI 1.033 to 1.227), previous injury (HR=1.735; 95% CI 1.037 to 2.902) and mean session intensity (HR=1.396; 95% CI 1.040 to 1.874). Protective factors were previous regular running activity (HR=0.422; 95% CI 0.228 to 0.779) and weekly volume of other sports activities (HR=0.702; 95% CI 0.561 to 0.879).

CONCLUSIONS:

Midsole hardness of modern cushioned running shoes does not seem to influence RRI risk.

 

KEYWORDS: Injury Prevention; Running; Running shoes; Sporting injuries

Br J Sports Med. 2014 Mar;48(5):371-6. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2013-092613. Epub 2013 Sep 16.

Link to Pubmed abstract