Marathons May Cut Traffic Deaths
posted by admin in Home Health Services
Marathons may be lifesavers — and not just for people who
get in shape to run the 26.2 miles in a marathon.
Marathons are more likely to save lives due to road closures on the race
course than to cause runners’ sudden cardiac death.
So say researchers including Donald Redelmeier, MD, of Canada’s University
of Toronto. They studied large U.S. marathons run on public roads from 1975 to
2004.
Together, those races included more than 3.2 million runners, 26 of whom
suffered sudden cardiac death. That’s less than one death per 100,000
runners.
Those sudden cardiac deaths tended to happen in the last mile of marathons,
so that may be a key stretch of the race for rescue workers to watch over,
Redelmeier’s team notes.
Redelmeier and colleagues also checked traffic fatality data from counties
where the races were run. On marathon days, those counties had about two fewer
traffic deaths for each sudden cardiac death that was marathon-related.
Closing the roads for the marathon probably accounts for those lives saved,
according to the researchers. Their report appears in BMJ, formerly
called the British Medical Journal.
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