Ferber, ReedEdwards, W. BrentSenevirathna, Benthara Hettiarachchige Angela Madushani2022-09-202022-09-202022-09Senevirathna, B. H. A. D. (2022). Differences in kinetic variables between injured and uninjured rearfoot runners: a hierarchical cluster analysis (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/115247https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/40259Running is a popular form of physical activity with a surprisingly high incidence of running-related injuries. While the relationship between running related injuries and ground reaction forces has been investigated, a limitation of previous research is that the heterogeneity of movement patterns within a control group creates confounding factors between variables. A potential solution is to use unsupervised cluster-based analyses to group individuals with similar ground reaction force features and thus investigate differences between identified clusters. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate whether homogenous clusters exist within a large cohort of injured and healthy runners. The results show that two homogeneous clusters were identified using hierarchical cluster analysis and no significant differences in demographic variables were observed, nor were the proportion of injured and healthy runners between the two clusters. Thus, while there appears to be evidence for two distinct homogeneous kinetic clusters within our large sample of injured and healthy runners, there is no association between these kinetic clusters and running-related injuries.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.BiomechanicsKineticsRunning InjuryCluster analysisEngineering--Biomedicalmaster thesis