Athletes with Disabilities: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 7: | Line 7: | ||
== Types of Sports for Athletes with Disabilities == | == Types of Sports for Athletes with Disabilities == | ||
== Injury Epidemiology in Athletes with Disabilities == | == Injury Epidemiology in Athletes with Disabilities<br> As with all types of athletes, injuries are common among athletes with disabilities. A study from Ferrera et al, (1992) showed that out of 426 athletes who participated in the national competition of the National Wheelchair Athletic Association (NWAA), the United States Association for Blind Athletes (USABA), and the United States Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association (USCPAA), a total of 32 percent of the athletes sustained some sort of injury which resulted in loss of time able to compete. Over half of the injuries to the athletes who were blind were to the lower extremities. Injuries to the athletes with cerebral palsy were fairly evenly distributed between the knee, shoulder, forearm/wrist and leg/ankle areas. Perhaps most importantly, this study showed that similar occurrences of injury percentage occurred in athletes with and athletes without injuries, when compared between the same sports.<br> In a review by Fagher and Lexell, (2014), they looked at 25 studies involving sports-related injuries to athletes with disabilities. They were look at characteristics, number of incidents, prevalence, and well as prevention strategies for injuries to these athletes. This review found that there are very few studies done for specifically athletes with disabilities, and fewer still that breakdown athletes into specific age groups, types of injuries, etc. Among the important statistics found in this report, it was shown that the prevalence of injuries at the Summer Paralympic Games in 2012 were around 17% of athlete’s that participated sustained some sort of injury. This, again, was approximately equal to the number of injuries sustained by athletes without a disability. <br>Another article examined injuries to athletes with disabilities attending high school (Fagher and Lexell, 2014). In contrast to the other studies, the percentage of injuries per athlete was approximately 7.5%, which is much lower than the athletes above. More than half of the injuries were minor, and a majority of the injuries were to lower extremity sites (44%), as compared to 26% to the upper extremities and 21% to the head/neck/face areas. This study also broke down whether the injuries occurred during practice or games. The strong majority of injuries, 71%, occurred during practice or conditioning activities. Walking or running activities accounted for more than half of the injuries found during this study, and most involved a collision with either another athlete or an object. Only four athletes in this study were injured to the extent where they had to miss more than one day of activity due to the injury. Once again, these numbers were comparable to the incidence of injuries sustained by athletes without disabilities. <br> The key statistic common in all of these studies is, contrary to common belief, the incidence, and extent of injuries in athletes with disabilities does not appear to vary greatly from those of athletes without disabilities.<br> == | ||
== Medical Considerations for Athletes with Disabilities == | == Medical Considerations for Athletes with Disabilities == | ||
Revision as of 03:03, 12 November 2015
Original Editor - Your name will be added here if you created the original content for this page.
Top Contributors - Sean Holland, Joey Cronin, Chris Tinschert, Brittany Conner, Laura Ritchie, Josh Williams, Evan Thomas, Scott Buxton, Naomi O'Reilly and Wanda van Niekerk
Types of Sports for Athletes with Disabilities[edit | edit source]
Injury Epidemiology in Athletes with Disabilities
As with all types of athletes, injuries are common among athletes with disabilities. A study from Ferrera et al, (1992) showed that out of 426 athletes who participated in the national competition of the National Wheelchair Athletic Association (NWAA), the United States Association for Blind Athletes (USABA), and the United States Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association (USCPAA), a total of 32 percent of the athletes sustained some sort of injury which resulted in loss of time able to compete. Over half of the injuries to the athletes who were blind were to the lower extremities. Injuries to the athletes with cerebral palsy were fairly evenly distributed between the knee, shoulder, forearm/wrist and leg/ankle areas. Perhaps most importantly, this study showed that similar occurrences of injury percentage occurred in athletes with and athletes without injuries, when compared between the same sports.
In a review by Fagher and Lexell, (2014), they looked at 25 studies involving sports-related injuries to athletes with disabilities. They were look at characteristics, number of incidents, prevalence, and well as prevention strategies for injuries to these athletes. This review found that there are very few studies done for specifically athletes with disabilities, and fewer still that breakdown athletes into specific age groups, types of injuries, etc. Among the important statistics found in this report, it was shown that the prevalence of injuries at the Summer Paralympic Games in 2012 were around 17% of athlete’s that participated sustained some sort of injury. This, again, was approximately equal to the number of injuries sustained by athletes without a disability.
Another article examined injuries to athletes with disabilities attending high school (Fagher and Lexell, 2014). In contrast to the other studies, the percentage of injuries per athlete was approximately 7.5%, which is much lower than the athletes above. More than half of the injuries were minor, and a majority of the injuries were to lower extremity sites (44%), as compared to 26% to the upper extremities and 21% to the head/neck/face areas. This study also broke down whether the injuries occurred during practice or games. The strong majority of injuries, 71%, occurred during practice or conditioning activities. Walking or running activities accounted for more than half of the injuries found during this study, and most involved a collision with either another athlete or an object. Only four athletes in this study were injured to the extent where they had to miss more than one day of activity due to the injury. Once again, these numbers were comparable to the incidence of injuries sustained by athletes without disabilities.
The key statistic common in all of these studies is, contrary to common belief, the incidence, and extent of injuries in athletes with disabilities does not appear to vary greatly from those of athletes without disabilities.
[edit | edit source]
Medical Considerations for Athletes with Disabilities[edit | edit source]
Classification of Athletes with Disabilities[edit | edit source]
Resources and Organizations for Athletes with Disabilities[edit | edit source]
Recent Related Research (from Pubmed)[edit | edit source]
Extension:RSS -- Error: Not a valid URL: Feed goes here!!|charset=UTF-8|short|max=10
References[edit | edit source]
References will automatically be added here, see adding references tutorial.
