The Evaluation
Return to run demands honest conversations—that's where patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) create an essential bridge between runners and physical therapists. I know that some clinicians don’t like using them, but these standardized tools transform more subjective experiences like pain levels and functional limitations into measurable data, giving you crucial insights that objective assessments alone miss. They also provide trackable, calculable information for you to use in understanding your patient’s process as they return to activity. For runners, whose goals often extend beyond basic function to performance optimization, PROMs can capture progress in personally meaningful ways—tracking improvements in training capacity, running-specific movements, and quality of life. By systematically incorporating these validated measures, you can better quantify treatment effectiveness, facilitate shared decision-making throughout rehabilitation, and create interventions that truly resonate with runners' real-world needs.
Unfortunately for running-specific work, there are few validated outcome measures to assess the return to run process or the affect that an injury is having on one’s ability to run. But just because there aren’t a lot of outcome measures to use, doesn’t mean that we should default to the LEFs all the time. We can do better than the LEFS. We all should want to, so let’s do it.
I’ve pulled together my favorite PROMs to use for running and lower extremity injury so you can find anything you need from them in just one page. They’re organized by body part, downloadable, and available in two versions: one branded from Resilience Running so you can give us credit, and one white-labeled, so you can choose the one that’s best for you. With that, let’s dive in.
Running-Specific Outcome Measures
There are only two good ones that I’ve been able to find, unfortunately. Here are my favorite trackers to use for things specifically about running.
University of Wisconsin Running Injury and Recovery Index
An excellent breakdown of how an injury is affecting someone’s running. It includes details about pace and distance, pain during and after running, and frustration too.
Psychometrics - Minimal Detectable Change is 4.7 and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference is 8
Here’s the unbranded version
Patient Specific Functional Scale
This is a fantastic outcome measure for any condition and goal, as long as it’s properly and regularly administered. Follow the instructions on the form in order to administer correctly
Psychometrics - The Minimal Detectable Change is 1 and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference is 2
Here’s the unbranded version
General Outcome Measures
These outcome measures cover larger areas than the ones I’ll address below, though not necessarily the whole body. They’re useful for a variety of conditions.
Designed to get a global sense of how recovery is going, this is good for any condition. It can work for runners and non-runners alike and gives you a good tool to quantify overall progress. Just make sure the patient has a reasonable idea of where they started from before they start the form, as injury-amnesia definitely exists as the recovery process progresses
Psychometrics - The Minimal Detectable Change is 2 and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference is 3
Here’s the unbranded version
Exercise Induced Leg Pain Questionnaire
This questionnaire is good to use for any leg injury in an athlete, as it assesses running, jumping, landing, and quick cutting movements. I’m a big fan of this one for all athletes with mild to moderate leg injuries of any sort
Psychometrics - The Minimal Detectable Change is 4 and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference is 6
Here’s the unbranded version
Hip Outcome Measures
There aren’t a lot of outcome measures I like for athletes with hip injuries, but the VISA-H is quality. Unfortunately, it’s really designed just for one thing. I’d recommend pairing it up with a PSFS or UWRRI from above to get the full perspective on your athlete, or the EILP.
Designed for those with hamstring tendinopathy, this outcome measure is well focused on sport, exercise, and other factors related to the hamstring. It’s well designed for all hamstring injuries, in my opinion, though it’s only validated for hamstring tendinopathy
Psychometrics - the Minimal Detectable Change is 4 and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference is so far unvalidated
Here’s the unbranded version
Knee Outcome Measures
There are a few good measures for athletes recovering from knee pain or injury. Be sure to grab the one that’s most applicable to your athlete
This is designed to measure the confidence someone has in their knee. It’s especially good for people who have sustained a sport related intra-articular knee injury, like an ACL tear, since it was designed for those athletes specifically
Psychometrics - The Minimal Detectable Change is 7 and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference is so far unvalidated
Here’s the unbranded version
This form is designed for athletes with patellofemoral pain, AKA runner’s knee, and talks specifically about pain in the kneecap region. It’s the most focused outcome measure to use when assessing this condition
Psychometrics - The Minimal Detectable Change is 8 and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference is 13
Here’s the unbranded version
As you might expect, this is designed for people returning to sport after ACL injury. It’s tightly focused on those athletes and well validated for this population. I highly recommend it for all athletes with past ACL tears as it assesses psychological readiness, a key aspect in the process
Psychometrics - The Minimal Detectable Change is 13 and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference is 18
Here’s the unbranded version
Foot and Ankle
Similar to hips, above, there’s only one good scale for athletes returning from foot and ankle injury, so far at least. Unlike the hips, this scale hits more injuries, providing a global view of foot and ankle function.
Foot and Ankle Ability Measure
This outcome measure does an excellent job of hitting on all the categories you’d want to measure: stairs, walking, running, even ground, uneven ground, work, the works. It’s a well-designed measure, especially when you use the sports subscale
Psychometrics - The Minimal Detectable Change on the ADL subscale is 6 and on the Sports subscale is 10, while the Minimal Clinically Important Difference on the ADL subscale is 8 and on the Sports subscale is 12
Here’s the unbranded version
Any more?
Those are the major outcome measures that we’ve come to like at RRI, but we’re glad to hear about any others that you like or use in your practice. Email our head coach at Luke@ResilienceRunning.com with the details about any other outcome measures you’re regularly using, we’d love to give them a look.