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Abstract
Objective To identify the priority injuries and illnesses across UK summer Paralympic World Class Programmes (WCP).
Methods Four years (2016–2019) of electronic medical records from 360 athletes across 17 Paralympic WCP sports were analysed. Methods were based on the 2021 International Paralympic Committee translation of the original 2020 International Olympic Committee consensus statement for epidemiological recording and reporting. This included reporting incidence (count of injury per athlete year) and burden (time loss days per athlete year) of injuries by impairment category.
Results 836 injuries and 453 illnesses were recorded during the surveillance period, accounting for 34 638 and 10 032 time-loss days, respectively. 216 (60%) athletes reported at least one injury, while 171 (47.5%) reported at least one illness. There were 0.9 injuries per athlete year, resulting in a mean injury burden of 38.1 days per athlete year. The lumbar/pelvis, shoulder and thoracic/ribs body region had the greatest incidence whereas the shoulder, lumbar/pelvis and wrist had the greatest injury burden. All impairment categories had shoulder or lumbar/pelvis as the body region with the greatest incidence, however the burden of body areas did not always reflect the incidence. Athletes reported 0.5 illnesses per athlete year, resulting in an average illness burden of 11.3 days per athlete year. The respiratory, gastrointestinal, dermatological and genitourinary organ systems had the greatest illness incidence.
Conclusions To optimise health and performance in Paralympic sport athletes, system-wide mitigation initiatives should target priority injury problems occurring in the lumbar/pelvis, shoulder, thoracic spine/ribs and wrist. Illness types causing the greatest burden vary with impairment group, and illness mitigation initiatives should consider athlete impairment types in their design, while continuing to note the high incidence of respiratory and gastrointestinal illness across all impairments. Further research should examine associated risk factors and the influence of impairment categorisation.
- Health
- Sport
- Epidemiology
Data availability statement
All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. All the data was collected and controlled by the UK Sports Institute (UKSI) on behalf of the UK Sport high performance system. Prior informed consent to use anonymised data for the purposes of research was obtained in writing by the UKSI, confirming each athlete had read and accepted the athlete privacy notice. https://uksportsinstitute.co.uk/athlete-privacy-notice/. We have included all relevant data in tables within the article.
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Data availability statement
All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. All the data was collected and controlled by the UK Sports Institute (UKSI) on behalf of the UK Sport high performance system. Prior informed consent to use anonymised data for the purposes of research was obtained in writing by the UKSI, confirming each athlete had read and accepted the athlete privacy notice. https://uksportsinstitute.co.uk/athlete-privacy-notice/. We have included all relevant data in tables within the article.
Footnotes
Twitter @mike_brownlow, @SportswiseUK
Contributors All authors meet requirements for authorship. Specifically, MB was the lead author who took responsibility for leading the team, structuring the research, writing the original article and the revisions after peer review. SMc also took a significant role in supporting the writing and editing the work. MW took responsibility for the data analysis and production of tables and figures. NW, PB and DI provided para-athlete expertise and advice on the literature in this area plus the content and structure of the article. AT and JW supported MW in the processing and analysis of the data. CR is the guarantor and oversaw the entire article, advising on all aspects and supporting MB, SMc and MW with writing, editing, revisions and final submissions.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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