Trail running is a popular off-road activity that exposes athletes to variable and challenging environments and conditions. Although running has numerous health benefits, trail running is also associated with a high risk of injury. During races in remote areas medical support can be challenging, which prompts the need to identify runners at an increased risk for injury before race participation. However, with trail running only recently gaining popularity and having fewer participants, clinicians are not regularly exposed to the injury risk management of trail runners. Currently, no clinical decision aid exists for trail running. For these reasons a recent study aimed to develop a clinical decision aid for clinicians to screen for increased injury risk in trail runners. The researchers developed a 26-item Trail Running Injury Screening Instrument (TRISI) by consulting the published literature and trail runners’ opinion, along with identifying risk factors from cross-sectional and prospective cohort studies. The instrument was designed not to predict injury among trail runners but to highlight areas of potential clinical interest regarding increased risk of injury. The TRISI will be made available as an application hosted on the latest Android and iPhone Operating Systems which clinicians can use during their normal patient assessment procedure. The clinician can then use the information derived from the TRISI to design individualised risk management strategies, including health education, to mitigate the trail runner's risk of injury during training and racing.

Reference for this summary:

Carel Viljoen, Dina C. Janse van Rensburg, Willem van Mechelen, Evert Verhagen, Elzette Korkie, Tanita Botha. Development of a trail running injury screening instrument: A multiple methods approach. Physical Therapy in Sport, 56 (2022), 60-75.