Disclosures: Caroline M. Fryar, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Background and/or Objectives: Symptomatic Achilles tendon pain is common in recreational runners and mechanisms may be intrinsic and extrinsic. Our objective was to identify intrinsic temporalspatial, kinetic, kinematic features of motion and extrinsic features, such as changes in shoewear, that may contribute to Achilles pain in recreational runners.

Design: Retrospective case-control study.

Setting: Academic research institution.

Participants: Runners with Achilles pain and age-sex-running speed matched healthy runners (N&#3f58; age=39.4±17.9 yr; BMI=23.02±4.4 kg/m2; weekly distance=37.6±21.9 km).

Interventions: not applicable

Main Outcome Measures: 3D kinematics and joint angle of ankle, knee and hip; historical risk factors of running injury (shoe wear, rapid changes to volume, intensity, terrain or footstrike).

Results: A higher proportion of injured runners had changed their running shoe style within the previous 6 months than non-injured runners (55.2% vs. 23.1%; p=.015). Temporalspatial parameters were not different between groups. However, normalized hip extension moments in frontal and sagittal planes were 17%-23% higher in injured than noninjured runners (p

Conclusions: Contributors to running-related Achilles pain were a combination of recent shoewear change and mechanical features that may elevate tensile stress on the tendon with repeated loading during training. In the sports clinic setting, runners may benefit from guidance on gradual shoe transitions and therapy plans to correct landing and loading mechanics.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/running-related-achilles-pain-is-associated-with-recent-shoe-change-and-landing-mechanics-in-recreational-runners/