Disability in sport

PURPOSE: This study examined how ableism influences blind and visually impaired women's experiences accessing and engaging in exercise, physical activity, and sport. METHODS: Ten women between the ages of 27 and 45 years completed a one-on-one audio-recorded virtual interview where they reflected on the meaningfulness of their exercise, physical activity, and/or sport experiences, as well as described any experiences related to direct, indirect, systemic, or internalized ableism within or when attempting to access those physical activity experiences...

BACKGROUND: For athletes, overcoming obstacles in challenging situations like pandemic home training is crucial. Strategies and approaches in this context are not well-documented. Our study aims to investigate such a scenario from a performance standpoint, based on a major global crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. METHODS: This cross-sectional study surveyed athletes without disabilities using online questionnaires (35 languages) from May to July 2020. Questions included aspects of alternative routines, training monitoring, recovery, sleep patterns, injury occurrence/prevention based on structured answers, and an open-ended question on lockdown training experiences...

BACKGROUND: While barriers to participation in physical activity are well documented, there is no consolidated evidence on strategies promoting participation of people with intellectual disability in physical activities. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review to examine initiatives used to facilitate the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in community-based sporting and recreation activities. We searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL+ and PsycINFO for articles published in English between 2000 and 2022...

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal conditions are a leading contributor to disability worldwide. The treatment of these conditions accounts for 7% of health care costs in Germany and is often provided by physiotherapists. Yet, an overview of the cost-effectiveness of treatments for musculoskeletal conditions offered by physiotherapists is missing. This review aims to provide an overview of full economic evaluations of interventions for musculoskeletal conditions offered by physiotherapists. METHODS: We systematically searched for publications in Medline, EconLit, and NHS-EED...

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the proportion attributable to contextual effects of physical therapy interventions for musculoskeletal pain. DESIGN: Intervention systematic review with meta-analysis. LITERATURE SEARCH: We searched Ovid, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, PEDro, Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry, and SPORTDiscus databases from inception to April 2023. STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized placebo-controlled trials evaluating the effect of physical therapy interventions on musculoskeletal pain. DATA SYNTHESIS: Risk of bias was evaluated using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (ROB 2...

BACKGROUND: Due to the increase in the number of Parabadminton (PBd) athletes and the lack of scientific knowledge of the sport, it is important to evaluate performance variables in different game stimuli. Thus, this study sought to examine the physiological and metabolic responses in a simulated effort protocol in PBd athletes. METHODS: Forty-seven volunteers (WH1=7; WH2=9; SL3=8; SL4=9; SU5=6; SH6=8) performed a simulated effort protocol, consisting of 2 blocks of activities (1st change of direction + 1st simulated effort; 2nd change of direction + 2nd simulated effort)...

BACKGROUND: Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in workout apps and active virtual reality video games (AVRGs), which provide entertainment and enable users to undertake various forms of physical activity (PA) at home. Presumably, these types of exercises can be particularly useful for people with physical disabilities, who experience problems with access to sports and leisure facilities due to architectural and communication barriers. However, it is interesting whether the intensity of PA in VR is high enough to provide users with health benefits, as it is mainly based on arm movements...

BACKGROUND: Access to green space is considered beneficial to mental and physical health, though the causal pathways are not completely clear. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to examine how access to green space was associated with low mental distress and general health among older adults. METHODS: The data in our study stems from a survey from three Norwegian counties in 2015-16, n = 2937. The main exposure variable was self-reported access to green space, and the outcome variables were self-reported mental distress and general health...

OBJECTIVE: Determine the capacity of individual items on the Tendinopathy Severity Assessment - Achilles (TENDINS-A), Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS), and Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment - Achilles (VISA-A) to differentiate patients with mild and severe tendon-related disability in order to provide clinicians the best questions when they are consulting patients with Achilles tendinopathy. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy participants with Achilles tendinopathy (61...

Sport commitment describes a psychological attachment to a sport that influences one's desire or resolve to continue involvement in it. Studying antecedents believed to influence long term commitment to sport among athletes with a disability will help ensure that participants gain those psychosocial and health outcomes from sport participation that benefit quality of life. Our purposes in this study were: (i) to examine the Sport Commitment Model (SCM) in terms of the magnitude of the contribution of antecedent factors (i...

BACKGROUND: Patients seeking medical care for back pain often have coexisting painful joints and the effects of different combinations and number of coexisting pain sites (hip, knee, foot/ankle) to back pain on physical function domains and quality of life rating are not yet established. The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in functional outcomes and QOL among individuals with back pain who have concurrent additional pain sites or no pain sites. METHODS: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) cohort were used for this cross-sectional analysis...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the construct validity (structural validity and hypothesis testing), reliability (test-retest reliability, measurement error and internal consistency) and minimal important change (MIC) of the 13-item TENDINopathy Severity assessment-Achilles (TENDINS-A). METHODS: Participants with Achilles pain completed an online survey including: demographics, TENDINS-A, Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS) and Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment-Achilles (VISA-A)...

The main aim of this study was to evaluate injury prevalence, incidence rate, and burden in judo athletes with intellectual disabilities (ID) who participate in international competitions. This retrospective cross-sectional study analyzed data from the past year for 182 judo athletes with ID. Data was collected using a self-reported questionnaire, adapted from previous research, that included questions about injuries impacting training or competition, injury type, mechanism, severity, diagnosis, and location on the body...

In this paper, we analyze the subjective inclusion experiences of visually impaired (VI) adult tennis players from an ableism-critical perspective. The primary focus of this research is the inclusive potential of blind tennis from the perspective of VI individuals. Episodic interviews were conducted to capture subjective perspectives. A qualitative text analysis revealed that the interviewees were confronted with multiple ability assumptions by sighted people in their everyday lives. Deficit notions on the performance of VI people included sports, work, and general activities...

Repeated head trauma acquired through sports injuries has been associated with the development of long-term disabling symptoms that negatively impact the quality of life. In this retrospective case series, 52 male former professional athletes involved in contact sports and with a history of multiple concussions were evaluated for chronic clinical symptoms and post-mortem neuropathological diagnoses. The clinical symptoms of 19 cases were examined in greater detail for symptom type, severity and duration. Information on neurological, psychiatric and physical symptoms, substance use profiles and concussion histories was obtained from the athletes' next of kin and assessed in relation to post-mortem neuropathological diagnoses...

This research provides a pilot study of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health Framework (ICF) involving persons with disabilities (PWD) with and without lived experience of sport participation in Scotland. National surveys in Scotland provide limited information on the nature of individual disability restricting the understanding of the relationship between disability and sport and physical activity participation. The ICF is a framework that aims to describe and classify functioning and thus can be used as a tool to provide a more detailed description of impairment for PWDs beyond their clinical condition...

The field of medicine continues to advance as new technologies emerge. These technological advancements include the science of sports prostheses and wheelchairs, in which there have been significant advancements over the past decades. The world of adaptive sports continues to expand, largely due to a combination of the increase in awareness, inclusion, and technology. As participation in sports for people with impairments increases, there has been an associated demand for new, innovative adaptive sporting equipment designs that help accommodate the physical deficits of the individual...

The practice of physical activity, exercise and sport has many benefits for the general population, but studies on the population with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are scarce and inconclusive. The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the state of the art on the role of physical activity, exercise and sport in the quality of life and well-being of people with IDD, seeking to understand the current panorama in this area and provide answers to these questions. The research was carried out between July and October 2023 using three databases: PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus...

Athletes engaging in overhead activities often face injury risks, emphasising the need for reliable assessment tools. This study focused on the translation and psychometric evaluation of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic (KJOC) Shoulder and Elbow Score into Greek (Gr-KJOC) for assessing upper limb function in Greek-speaking overhead athletes. The Gr-KJOC underwent meticulous translation and adaptation processes, ensuring linguistic equivalence and cultural relevance. A sample of 60 athletes participated in the psychometric evaluation, including assessments of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and structural validity...

BACKGROUND: Subacromial pain syndrome (SPS) is the most common cause of shoulder pain. Therapeutic exercise is the first-line treatment for SPS; however, the ideal exercise type remains unclear. Here, we compared the effects of eccentric and concentric strengthening in patients with SPS. HYPOTHESIS: Adding isolated eccentric strengthening to a multimodal physiotherapy program (MPP) would lead to greater improvements in outcomes compared with either MPP alone or adding isolated concentric strengthening to the MPP...