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Understanding Injury and Injury Prevention in Paralympic Sport

2017; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 49; Issue: 5S Linguagem: Inglês

10.1249/01.mss.0000520012.78593.1f

1530-0315

Marcus Fearing, Shana Harrington,

Sports injuries and prevention

PURPOSE: Adaptive equipment technologic advances and increased media attention to the Paralympic Games have led to an increasing number of athletes with disabilities participating in Para sports. Still, little is known about common injuries that occur in Para sport athletes. Even less is known about whether these athletes are currently participating in injury prevention programs. The purpose of this study was to survey swimming, cycling and athletic Para sport athletes to better understand common injuries and whether injury prevention programs were being performed. METHODS: An electronic survey was created using Qualtrics consisting of 28 questions and emailed to 364 athletes who competed in the US Para Swimming, Cycling and Athletic Trials in Charlotte, NC -July 2016. The following information was collected from the survey: average number of hours trained, number of cross training hours performed each week, descriptive information regarding sport related injuries, pain, and whether athletes received treatment for injuries and descriptive information regarding whether the athletes had participated in an injury prevention program. RESULTS: A total of 137 surveys were completed. Males represented 58% of respondents and females 42%. Swimming represented 29% of the respondents, cycling 26% and athletics 51%. Over 70% of respondents trained ≥11 hours/week; and 45% of athletes reported spending ≥ 6 hours per week cross-training. Forty-two percent of athletes revealed they have current pain, and 34% had missed a competition because of injury. Sixty-two percent reported receiving physical therapy relating to sports injuries and 13% required surgeries for the sports-related injury. Only 24% of athletes participated in an injury prevention program. CONCLUSIONS: A large percentage of Para sport athletes report injuries and often have to miss training and competition due to these injuries. Despite this, only 24% report participating in an injury prevention program. Results from this study emphasize the need to develop and implement injury prevention programs in para sport athletes to help diminish the impact these injuries have on training and competition.