Running and arthritis

Three medical doctors from the departments of rheumatology, radiology, and orthopaedic surgery at County Hospital, Hillerod, Denmark, wondered whether the running boom would lead to an increased incidence of osteoarthrosis in the joints of the lower extremities¹. They recruited radiologists from 14 hospitals to help assess a group of runners and a group of non-runners.

They selected a group of Danish male orienteering runners who had qualified for count teams in the years between 1950 to 1955 (so they had been running for 40 years). One had died and two could not be located, leaving 30. Each of the 30 had continued to train and race on a recreational basis. The control group were volunteers who did not run and were well matched according to age, weight and height. Both runners and non-runners had essentially sedentary jobs.

Evidence of osteoarthrosis was assessed using roentgenographic films by measuring the height of joint cartilage in the hip and ankle joints and counting the number of osteophytes in the hips, knees, and ankles. The Mann-whitney test was applied to help assess differences between the two groups.

The essential finding was that there was no difference between the runners and non-runners as far as gaps between joints and the number of osteophytes. There was also no difference in range of motion or joint alignment between the two groups.

¹Lars Konradsen, Else-marie Hansen and Lars Sondergaard, The American Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol. 18, No. 4, p. 379-381, 1990.

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