Researchers at the University of Nottingham are recruiting thousands of parkrun participants to assess whether recreational running puts people at greater risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee in later life.

Recreational running has become one of the UK’s most popular pastimes and the parkrun organisation, which provides free weekly 5km running events around the world, has 800,000 members in the UK alone. Despite this, there is currently only a limited amount of research into the long-term health benefits of running, as well as the injury risks.

The Health of Adults’ Longitudinal Observational (HALO) study is aiming to recruit at least one per cent of all parkrun participants across the 350 locations in the UK and a further 1,500 parkrunners in Australia. Over the next 15 years, researchers will follow the fortunes of the volunteer participants to assess whether recreational running puts people at greater risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee in later life.

“One difficulty with research about physical activity and health is the lack of detailed data, especially running data, on large samples over many years,” said Dr Kim Edwards, who is leading the study.

“For example, many individuals believe that running will have a detrimental effect on their knees, yet the balance of previous research suggests that this is not necessarily the case. However, these were small investigations and a large study is needed.

“Additionally, in an ageing society, with increasing obesity and sedentary lifestyles, it is clear that a greater understanding in this area would be beneficial to the overall population.”

The participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire about their age, height, physical activity, their running habits, hobbies and pets, general health and injuries, osteoarthritis, knee problems, pain and stiffness. With agreement, the researchers will then follow up with participants at 12 months and every two to five years subsequently until the end of the study in 2030.

“It is really important that physical activity is encouraged within our society,” added University of Nottingham PhD student Richard Leech.

“Our research seeks to identify the short and long-term outcomes associated with recreational running. In doing so we wish to identify the benefits, particularly in relation to musculoskeletal health, so that people of all ages can participate safely.”

Anyone who is interested in taking part can contact Dr Kim Edwards in the University of Nottingham’s School of Medicine by email at: [email protected]