Jogging-related Risk Cognition and the Stimulation of Risky Behavior during Jogging

Objectives: With the rapid increase in the number of Chinese joggers, the number of people incurring injuries from jogging also has increased. Evaluating the relationship between jogging-related risk cognition and risky behaviors while jogging will help improve jogging-related risk cognition among joggers. Methods: We collected questionnaires about jogging-related risky behaviors and risk cognition from 3468 Chinese exercisers using a stratified random sampling method. We analyzed these data with correlation and multi-linear regression analyses. Results: The regression coefficients between risk cognition related to jogging-related technical procedures and risky behavior, between risk cognition related to personal physical and mental conditions and risky behavior, between risk cognition related to jogging-related equipment factors and risky behavior, between risk cognition related to jogging-related environmental factors and risky behavior, and between risk cognition related to personal jogging competition-related factors and risky behavior were all negative and statistically significant (p < .05). Conclusions: The level of risk cognition related to jogging is negatively correlated with actual risky behavior during jogging, which indicates that the higher the level of jogging-related risk cognition, the fewer jogging-related risky behaviors occur.