A study dating back to 2021 had tried to understand, by extrapolating data from many scientific articles, whether a person's gender could influence the tendency to get injured in a sport such as running.
The data was very interesting, showing a similarity in injury rates between men and women. Yet, the study revealed some substantial differences in the type of injury and injury patterns.
In fact, it was noted that some injuries are gender-specific, a truly enlightening finding that could pave the way for new ways of prevention and treatment.
A study dating back to 2021 had tried to understand, by extrapolating data from many scientific articles, whether a person's gender could influence the tendency to get injured in a sport such as running. The data was very interesting, showing a similarity in injury rates between men and women. Yet, the study revealed some substantial differences in the type of injury and injury patterns. In fact, it was noted that some injuries are gender-specific, a truly enlightening finding that could pave the way for new ways of prevention and treatment.
A group of researchers wanted to conduct research in 2021 on whether men and women are equally likely to suffer running injuries. The basic question was: Is there any factor, or any cause, or any reason why one sex has a higher incidence of injuries than another? In addition, injuries specific to men and women were also taken into account. To do this, 12,215 scientific articles on the subject were analysed.
Looking at the data collected, it can be seen that the percentage of running injuries between men and women is practically the same: 20.8% for women and 20.4% for men. One fact that might give pause for thought is that women tend to be injured in competitions under 10 km, while men tend to be injured in races longer than 10 km.
Studies and analyses have shown a greater tendency in women to suffer injuries such as stress fractures, i.e. destruction of bone tissue due to repeated microtrauma. It has been shown that women tend to suffer this kind of injury mainly at a young age, during high school (in these years, the risk is 2.5 times higher than in men). And in track competitions (up to 1500 metres) even 3.1 times more than in males.
Some of the possible causes of this tendency can be: lower muscle strength, which therefore leads to the bones being more stressed. Hormonal changes due to menstruation may also be a cause of this tendency. Other reasons may range from lower bone density but also biomechanical factors, such as the different movement men and women make when running due to physical differences.
Males, on the other hand, are more prone to developing achilles tendon injuries (tendinitis, general localised inflammation and ruptures). Suffice it to say that these injuries have an incidence among amateur runners of 5.2 per cent (among all injuries) and 40-50 per cent of runners have suffered from them at least once in their lifetime. Its cause lies most frequently in the runner's mileage load.