Descriptive Epidemiology of Paralympic Sports Injuries

Abstract

Paralympic sports have seen an exponential increase in participation since 16 patients took part in the first Stoke Mandeville Games on the opening day of the 1948 London Olympic Games. More than 4,000 athletes took part in the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Few sporting events have seen such rapid evolution. This rapid pace of change also has meant challenges for understanding the injury risks of participation, not only because of the variety of sports, impairment types, the evolution of adapted equipment but also because of the inclusion of additional impairment types and development of new sports over time. Early studies were limited in scope but patterns of injuries are slowly emerging within Winter and Summer Paralympic sports. The IPC's London 2012 study is the largest to date with a prospective cohort study involving 49,910 athlete-days. The results identified large differences across sports and highlighted the need for longitudinal sport specific studies rather than solely games-time studies. This will require collaboration with international sports federations to examine injury patterns and risk factors for injury in this population to appropriately inform injury prevention strategies. Further studies will also need to address the impact of sporting participation, injury, and future health.

High incidence of injury at the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympic Games: a prospective cohort study of 6564 athlete days

“…The first Winter Paralympic Games in Sweden in 1976 hosted 53 athletes competing in two sports, whereas the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympic Games hosted 547 athletes who competed in six sports 1 2. This growth has been fostered by the continued development of Paralympic sport in general, including advances in modified sports equipment (eg, mono skis), adaptive techniques and the evolution of new sports geared towards athletes with an impairment (eg, para snow board) 3…”

“…Previous studies conducted on athletes with impairment in a Winter Games setting suggest that these athletes do not have a significantly greater overall risk of injury compared to their able-bodied counterparts 6–8. However, the functional consequences of injury to an athlete with an underlying physical or visual impairment may be considerably greater than for able-bodied athletes 2 7…”

Putting the Athlete First: a Comprehensive Assessment of Elite Para Athlete Well-Being

“…The importance of physical well-being for athletes with physical impairments, and that physical pain negatively affects subjective and psychological well-being has also been highlighted (Macdougall et al 2016). Also with respect to physical well-being, there has been mixed evidence of whether the injury rate for Para athletes is comparable (Fagher and Lexell 2014;Webborn and Emery 2014;Weiler et al 2016) or higher in able bodied athletes (Blauwet et al 2016;Derman et al 2013). Regardless of whether the rate is the same or higher, injuries are a potential threat to Para athlete physical well-being and functionality.…”

Atuação Da Fisioterapia No Esporte Paralímpico

“…Nos últimos anos a prática esportiva para grupos de pessoas com deficiência, passou a integrar o esporte de alto rendimento, atingindo níveis elevados de competição, o que tem aumentado o número de lesões esportivas nessa população e leva estudiosos da área a investigar as causas e consequências para os atletas com deficiência [1][2][3] . Alguns estudos na área de lesão esportiva em atletas com deficiência já foram publicados relatando as lesões que ocorrem em atletas em algumas modalidades paralímpicas 1,4 .…”