Background The elastic compression was first used in sports to improve post-exercise recovery and performances. Many anecdotal reports further indicated that the elastic compression could decrease the risk of injury.

Objective The aim was to determine whether the elastic compression really decreases this risk. We hypothesized that wearing the elastic compression decreases the risk of injury in trail running.

Desgin Retrospective study.

Setting Regional sportmen.

Participants 203 runners recruited in regional trail races.

Risk factor assessment We sent a questionnaire to obtain the age range of the participants and in the past three months: their level of weekly training (hours and sessions), the quantity and type of injuries and whether they used or not the elastic compression. This day, 105 runners wearing the elastic compression (during effort and post-exercise recovery) and 98 non-wearing (control group) answered this questionnaire. We used a multiplier coefficient for reported these two groups to 100.

Main outcome measurements Number of injuries according to the wearing or not of the elastic compression.

Results The preliminary results indicate that the control group trained 3.11±0.86 sessions per week (i.e. 4.13±1.32 hours) and the group wearing elastic compression trained 4.00±0.93 sessions per week (i.e. 5.64±1.54 hours). We observed 24.49 injuries (per 100 tendinitis, periostitis, muscular injuries and sprains) in the control group and 18.09 in the group wearing elastic compression (i.e. -26.11%).

Conclusions The preliminary results seem to indicate that wearing the elastic compression during and after the sports practice decreases the risk of injury of the runners. Further research is required. We are expanding this study to a more consequent population.