Why don’t we run and why did we stop running? An online survey of the French speaking Belgian population.

Details

Supervisors

Nguyen, Anh Phong ; Van Luchene, Pierre

Faculty

Faculté des sciences de la motricité

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de la motricité, orientation générale, à finalité spécialisée: kinésithérapie musculo-squelettique

Abstract

Physical inactivity has become an important public health issue as it is associated with the development of chronic diseases and premature deaths. Running remains one of the most popular way to be physically active. However, despite its growing popularity, many runners stop their practice. The aim of our survey is to emphasize what prevent people from running. Our results indicate that barriers amongst non-runners towards running are essentially due to the lack of pleasure, lack of motivation and poor time management. Beginners who stopped their program early blame their lack of motivation and running related injuries. Those are mainly located at the knee (ITBS) and the ankle (Achilles tendinopathy). Results are a bit different for runners who ceased running. Majority had to stop because of running related injuries. Runners who never stopped pretend that a health issue, a modification of their daily life and their time management could be restrictive. A better identification of those factors could help clinicians, trainers and other health practitioners to promote running as a physical activity in a more specific way.