Crossmark

Running into the Lyme-light: a retrospective cross-sectional study of tick bites and Lyme disease prevalence, incidence, and prevention in hill runners, Scotland, UK.

Crossref DOI link: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26181-8

Published Online: 2026-01-13

Update policy: https://doi.org/10.1007/springer_crossmark_policy

Authors

Balfour, Mabel

Ribeiro, Rita https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9976-3731
Auty, Harriet https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6181-3780
Heath, Alicia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6517-1300
License Information

Text and Data Mining valid from 2026-01-13

Version of Record valid from 2026-02-09
More Information

Article History

Received: 10 October 2025

Accepted: 31 December 2025

First Online: 13 January 2026

Declarations

:

: Ethical approval was obtained from Imperial College London’s Research Governance and Integrity Team (Imperial College Research Ethics Committee reference 7030885). The study was conducted in accordance with the recommendations for physicians involved in research on human subjects adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki 1964 and later revisions. All participants gave informed consent in the digital survey form, and indicated they were aged 18 years or over.

: Not applicable.

: The first author is a hill runner taking part in the sport under study and a member of the Scottish Hill Runners (SHR) organisation, with a personal relationship with members of the committee, who provided support for survey distribution to SHR members and information on the number of individuals participating in SHR-affiliated races. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Document is current

Any future updates will be listed below