Subclassification of recreational runners with a running-related injury based on running kinematics evaluated with marker-based two-dimensional video analysis

Abstract

Objectives: To explore whether homogeneous subgroups could be discriminated within a population of recreational runners with a running-related injury based on running kinematics evaluated with marker-based two-dimensional video analysis.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Research laboratory.

Participants: Fifty-three recreational runners (15 males, 38 females) with a running-related injury.

Main outcome measures: Foot and tibia inclination at initial contact, and hip adduction and knee flexion at midstance were measured in the frontal and sagittal plane with marker-based two-dimensional video analysis during shod running on a treadmill at preferred speed. The four outcome measures were clustered using K-means cluster analysis (n = 2-10). Silhouette coefficients were used to detect optimal clustering.

Results: The cluster analysis led to the classification of two distinct subgroups (mean silhouette coefficient = 0.53). Subgroup 1 (n = 39) was characterized by significantly greater foot inclination and tibia inclination at initial contact compared to subgroup 2 (n = 14).

Conclusion: The existence of different subgroups demonstrate that the same running-related injury can be represented by different kinematic presentations. A subclassification based on the kinematic presentation may help clinicians in their clinical reasoning process when evaluating runners with a running-related injury and could inform targeted intervention strategy development.

Keywords: Kinematics; Running injury; Subclassification; Two-dimensional video analysis.