This questionnaire contained questions on demographics, training characteristics, and the presence of current running-related musculoskeletal pain. (See Supplemental Appendix 1 on the eAddenda for an English

translation of the questionnaire.) In addition, those runners who reported current runningrelated musculoskeletal pain were asked to describe the location of their symptoms with a body chart and to rate the intensity of their pain using a numerical rating scale ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (most severe pain). Finally, an adapted version of the Blazina Scale was used to collect data on pain characteristics (Schwartz et al 1988). We used descriptive statistics to summarise the data. The continuous variables were expressed NLG919 mouse as median and interquartile ranges or mean and standard deviation depending on the distribution of the data, while categorical data were expressed as percentages. Also depending on the distribution of the selleck data, either the Mann-Whitney test or independent t test was used to compare the data between the genders and to compare the amount of training between respondents with and without pain. Relative risk with 95% CI was used to compare the prevalence of pain between the genders. For all comparisons,

a probability value of p < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. A total of 1049 runners (796 men and 253 women) completed the survey. The characteristics of all respondents and the characteristics of the respondents according to gender are presented in Table 1. Among the 1049 respondents, 227 (22%) reported the presence of musculoskeletal pain. This suggests that more than one out of five recreational runners is participating in a running event with current symptoms of a running-related musculoskeletal injury. Analysing by gender, 159 (20%) of the 796

male respondents reported the presence of musculoskeletal pain. Among the females, 68 (27%) of the 253 respondents reported the presence of musculoskeletal pain, indicating a significantly greater prevalence of pain among females (RR 1.35, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.72). The characteristics of the training routines among all the respondents and among the respondents according to gender are presented in Table 2. On average, male respondents had a substantially longer running history Sodium butyrate and substantially greater training distance per week. Details of the duration, intensity, and characteristics of the running-related musculoskeletal pain are presented in Table 3. Overall, these outcomes were similar for men and women. The knee was the most commonly reported location of running-related musculoskeletal pain. The median pain duration reported was approximately one month with a median pain intensity of 3.5 points on the numerical rating scale. Table 4 presents a comparison of the amount of training between runners who reported pain prior to their race and runners who did not.