# Injury Incidence and Pattern in Elite Young Male and Female Trail Runners
## 3 Results
Contrastingly, female runners reported less incidence by acute sudden onset than male runners (32.0%; \(p\) = 0.042; ES = 0.209), so that repetitive sudden onset was the most common injury in female runners (48%, \(p\) = 0.039; ES = 0.480), followed by repetitive gradual onset (20.0%). The analysis of the mode of onset in each body region revealed that the number of ankle injuries is higher due to acute sudden onset (55.3%) compared to repetitive sudden onset (23.4%) and repetitive gradual \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c c} \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**All**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Male**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Female**} & \\  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(_n_ = 95)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(_n_ = 70)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(_n_ = 25)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\(p\)**} & **ES (\(\varphi\))** \\ \hline  & \% & **(_n_)** & **\%** & **(_n_)** & **\%** & **(_n_)** & & \\ \hline Ankle & 49.5 \# & (47) & 54.3 \# & (38) & 36.0 & (9) & 0.116 & 0.161 \\ Knee & 17.9 & (17) & 18.6 & (13) & 16.0 & (4) & 1.000 & 0.030 \\ Lower leg & 9.5 & (9) & 5.7 & (4) & 20.0 & (5) & 0.051 & 0.215 \\ Thigh & 5.3 & (5) & 4.3 & (3) & 8.0 & (2) & 0.604 & 0.073 \\ Wrist & 4.2 & (4) & 4.3 & (3) & 4.0 & (1) & 1.000 & 0.006 \\ Tees & 4.2 & (4) & 1.4 & (1) & 12.0 & (3) & 0.055 & 0.232 \\ Foot & 3.2 & (3) & 4.3 & (3) & 0.0 & (0) & 0.564 & 0.108 \\ Shoulders & 2.1 & (2) & 2.9 & (2) & 0.0 & (0) & 1.000 & 0.088 \\ Elbow & 1.1 & (1) & 1.4 & (1) & 0.0 & (0) & 1.000 & 0.062 \\ Nails & 1.1 & (1) & 1.4 & (1) & 0.0 & (0) & 1.000 & 0.062 \\ Non-specific & 2.1 & (2) & 1.4 & (1) & 4.0 & (1) & 0.459 & 0.079 \\ \hline \end{tabular} \# Significant differences between body regions (\(p\) < 0.05).  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Body region of injuries in male and female trail runners. onset (21.3%). However, knee injuries were originated from repetitive sudden onset (58.8%), rather than from repetitive gradual onset (23.5%) or from acute sudden onset (17.6%). The highest incidence occurred in the right side of the body (60%), compared to 40% on the left side (\(p<0.001\); ES = 1.000). With regards to sex, most of the injuries in male runners were reported on the right side (62.9%), compared to the left side (37.1%), which difference was significant (\(p<0.001\); ES = 1.000). However, the incidence in female runners was balanced between right (52%) and left sides (48.0%). According to body segments in body sides, similar differences were observed in lower legs (77.8% vs. 22.2% left) and in the knee (70.6% right vs. 29.4% left). In the case of the ankle, although both sides showed dissimilar incidence (59.6% right vs. 40.4% left). The time most runners were inactive due to injuries was between 8-21 days (32.6%), followed by more than 21 days (24.2%) and 4-7 days (17.9%). According to differences by sex, male runners showed higher percentages in all periods longer than 4 days than female runners, meaning that the former needs more time for recovery. As for the absence of recovery, 24% of female runners did not require recovery time compared to only 1.4% of male runners, this difference being significant (\(p=0.001\); ES = 0.380). At the other end of the scale, significant differences (\(p=0.031\); ES = 0.226) in recovery periods greater than 21 days were observed for male runners (30.0%) compared to female runners (8.0%). The analysis of time loss and body region highlighted that injures in the knee required more than 21 days of recovery, ankle between 8 and 21 days, and leg from 4 to 7 days. Table 3 showed that the most common injury was joint sprain (43.2%; \(p<0.001\); ES = 0.421), and tendinopathy (18.9%). The 11.6% of non-specific injuries included 5.3% cases of periostitis in the tibialis and 6.3% in the knees, ankles, and feet as undefined. The analysis by sex also showed differences in the diagnosis for male and female runners. While