Georgia State University Takes Athletes’ Research to the Streets

Georgia State University Takes Athletes’ Research to the Streets

All 15,000 Participants Invited To Take Part in Study

ATLANTA, February 20, 2007 -- Georgia State University’s Institute of Public Health and School of Health Professions are taking their research to the streets of Atlanta this spring. The university will partner with the new, inaugural 2007 ING Georgia Marathon to conduct collaborative research on athletes and their potential environmental exposures, motivations, training practices, and recovery times.

The Georgia State research team has created an interdisciplinary questionnaire, using PsychData internet-based survey tools, to gather training data on participants who are recreational athletes, as well as baseline health and environmental exposure information, such as whether or not a person has asthma, what is their typical diet, where they train, and how long a recovery period they expect to require after running the event. Additional research will be conducted on the motivations of wheelchair marathon participants.

The on-line questionnaire was launched February 16-19, 2007 to all registered participants, race staff and volunteers. The questionnaire will be available through March 25. Study participants will have additional opportunities to complete other pre- and post-race questionnaires and measures for training evaluation, and will receive some immediate feedback from researchers. The team plans to publish comprehensive study results at a later date.

The research team includes a number of Georgia State faculty members, most notably Regents’ Professor Emeritus David Martin and Dan Benardot, associate professor of nutrition both well-known experts in methods for improving the performance of elite athletes. Martin and Benardot will be researching nutritional supplements such as electrolyte fluids and energy bars and/or gels and the effect of over-the-counter pain medications on the participants’ immune systems.

The inaugural running of the ING Georgia Marathon, which includes a half-marathon and a wheelchair race, is slated for March 25, 2007 and is expected to draw up to 15,000 runners, some of them national and international elite runners and wheelchair athletes.

Additional research conducted during ING Georgia Marathon:

- Sheryl Flynn, assistant professor of physical therapy, will study the motivations of wheelchair marathon participants

- Derek Shendell, assistant professor of public health, will study participant attributes and environmental conditions such as heat, humidity and air pollution exposures, including known environmental asthma triggers with the team’s respiratory therapists

- Lynda Goodfellow, associate professor of respiratory therapy and director of School of Health Professions, will study known environmental asthma triggers

- Ralph Zimmerman, clinical instructor of respiratory therapy, will study known environmental asthma triggers