Running behaviors, motivations, and injury risk during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey of 1147 runners

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced activity behaviors worldwide. Given the accessibility of running as exercise, gaining information on running behaviors, motivations, and running-related injury (RRI) risk during the pandemic is warranted. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on running volume, behaviors, motives, and RRI changes from the year prior to the pandemic to the timeframe during social isolation restrictions. Runners of all abilities were recruited via social media to complete a custom Qualtrics survey. Demographics, running volume, behaviors, motivations, and injury status were assessed for the year prior to the pandemic, and during social isolation measures. Descriptive statistics and Student’s t-tests were used to assess changes in running outcomes during the pandemic. Logistic regressions were used to assess the influence of demographics on running behaviors and injury. Adjusted RRI risk ratios were calculated to determine the odds of sustaining an injury during the pandemic. Alpha was set to.05 for all analyses. A total of 1147 runners (66% females, median age: 35 years) across 15 countries (96% United States) completed the survey. Runners reported increased runs per week (Mean Difference with Standard Error [MD]: 0.30 [0.05], p < .001), sustained runs (MD: 0.44 [0.05], p < .001), mileage (MD: 0.87 [0.33], p = .01), and running times of day (MD: 0.11 [0.03], p < .001) during the pandemic, yet reported less workouts (i.e. sprint intervals; MD: -0.33 [0.06], p < .001), and less motives (MD [SE]: -0.41 [0.04], p < .001). Behavior changes were influenced by running experience and age. There was 1.40 (CI: 1.18,1.61) times the RRI risk during the pandemic compared to prior to the social isolation period. The COVID-19 pandemic influenced runners’ behaviors with increased training volume, decreased intensity and motivation, and heightened injury risk. These results provide insights into how physical activity patterns were influenced by large-scale social isolation directives associated with the pandemic.

Changes in Motivation, Socialization, Wellness and Mental Health in Youth Long-Distance Runners During COVID-19 Social Distancing Restrictions

“…These results are consistent with changes in motivators in adult runners during the pandemic. DeJong et al ( 2021 ) reported decreases in competition and socialization motivators in adult runners during COVID-19 than reported prior to COVID-19. The change in motivators for youth long-distance runners may also have influenced the significant decrease in self-reported enjoyment of running during COVID-19 social distancing restrictions compared to pre-COVID-19.…”

“…It consisted of 83 items that were separated among a minimum of 13 screens. The questions inquired about the participant's demographics (age, sex, state, years of running experience, recreational/competitive runner), running habits, running-related injuries (RRIs), running motivation, and wellness (sleep quality, anxiety, running enjoyment, food consumption quality) 6-months before as well as during social distancing restrictions due to COVID-19 (Bazett-Jones et al, 2020 ; DeJong et al, 2021 ). Questions were presented in a consistent order with adaptive questioning dependent on participant responses.…”

“…Participants also ranked six motives (competition/races, socialization, enjoyment/pleasure, occupy free time, stress relief, exercise/fitness) for running from most motivating to least motivating. These motives categories have been used previously in research with adult runners during COVID-19 (DeJong et al, 2021 ). While other questionnaires on running motivation exist [e.g., Motivation of Marathoners Scale (Zach et al, 2017 )], we agreed with other authors on its validity in a youth population (Malchrowicz-Mosko et al, 2020 ) who were non-marathoners.…”

“…However, during spring 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic, youth long-distance runners reported a decrease in their running habits, including reduced running distance (decreased 14.0%), total number of runs per week (decreased 14.0%), and number of hard runs per week (decreased 27.0%) (Bazett-Jones et al, 2020). This is in contrast with adult runners that reportedly increased their running behaviors following social distancing restrictions (DeJong et al, 2021;Holmes et al, 2021;Mosqueira-Ourens et al, 2021). Adults who made more changes to their running behaviors were injured more but these changes were due to multiple factors (Holmes et al, 2021).…”

“…As socialization has been negatively impacted during COVID-19 worldwide (Ammar et al, 2020b ), it is reasonable to assume that socialization has been impacted in runners. This assumption was supported as adult runners who demonstrated a decline in motivation and transition from competition and socialization motives to fitness, occupying time, and stress relief motives (DeJong et al, 2021 ). While less has been published in youth runners, competition may also be an important factor related to motivation and enjoyment in children (Chalkley et al, 2020 ).…”