Infectious episodes before and after a marathon race

The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of self‐reported infectious episodes (IE) during 3 weeks before (pre‐IE) and 3 weeks after (post‐IE) a marathon race and relate these figures to training status, running time, socioeconomic and demographic factors. Two questionnaires, including questions about important factors for IE incidence, were given to a representative cohort of 1694 runners (17% of all finishers) in the Stockholm Marathon 2000. Pre‐IE incidence in the cohort was 17% with no difference between women and men. Post‐IE incidence in the whole cohort was 19% with no significant (P>0.05) difference between women and men. The post‐IE incidence in runners without a pre‐IE was 16% (P>0.05 to pre‐IE incidence). In the group of runners with pre‐IE, 33% experienced an IE after the race also (P