Disability-related injuries in athletes with disabilities.

Objectives: Athletes with disabilities are highly skilled. Sports-related injuries and disorders interfere with their efforts. Several aspects of these injuries have been studied in previous studies. The aim of this study was to correlate the types of injuries with the disability group in athletes with physical disabilities.

Methods: One hundred and thirty nine elite athletes with physical disabilities completed a questionnaire about sports-related injuries that resulted in at least one day off from training or competition.

Results: All disability groups show soft tissue injuries in high percentages. Cerebral palsy (CP) athletes reported soft tissue injuries (P < 0.01) and lacerations (P < 0.001) in higher percentage than Other Disabled Athletes (ODA) and Spinal Cord Injured (SCI) athletes. Spinal cord injured athletes sustained fractures (P < 0.05) and blisters (P < 0.05) in higher percentages than the other groups. No differences were found between the studied groups for contusions, low back pain, ruptures, thermoregulation disorders, urinary tract infections, pressure sores and pneumonias.

Conclusion: CP athletes sustained soft tissue injuries and lacerations more than other disability groups did because moving and walking patterns of this population add risk factors for such injuries. Fractures and blisters occur more frequently to SCI athletes because they participate in higher percentage in wheelchair basketball which is high risky sport.