2019 Rome Marathon, hamstring injuries in long distance runners: influence of age, gender, weight, height, number of marathons and impact profile.

Background: Hamstring diseases are one of the most widespread diseases in athletes, especially in runners, sprinters, and endurance athletes. Notwithstanding the importance of the problem, risk factors are still marginally known. This transversal study analyzes the correlation between hamstring tendinopathy and hamstring strains and age, gender, weight, height, number of marathons, and impact profile in athletes who took part in the 2019 Rome Marathon.

Methods: At the 2019 Marathon of Rome, 700 runners (484 males and 216 females; mean age: 43.6 years, range 17-80 years) filled the VISA-H and FASH questionnaires. an adequately skilled orthopedic surgeon made a diagnosis of hamstring tendinopathy and hamstring strain injuries in line with clinical criteria.

Results: A diagnosis of hamstring tendinopathy was made in 537 participants while in 624 of hamstring strains. There was evidence of a positive correlation statistically significant between age, weight and impact profile with hamstring strain injuries, while there was no association between sex and number of marathons and the hamstring strains. No statistically significant positive correlation was found between all of the parameters analyzed and VISA-H. The association between VISA-H score and FASH score has resulted statistically significant.

Conclusions: In marathon athletes, there was not found evidence of a statistically significant correlation between gender, weight, height, number of marathons, impact profile and hamstring tendinopathy. Nonetheless, age, weight and impact profile were associated with hamstring strains, while sex and number of marathons had not shown statistically significant positive association with hamstring strain injuries.