Epidemiology of injuries during the Wheelchair Basketball World Championships 2018: A prospective cohort study

Abstract

Several international sports federations have implemented a standardized injury reporting system during their championships. However, very few studies have investigated athletes with disabilities during major championships apart from the Paralympic Games. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the rate and characteristics of injuries during the Wheelchair Basketball World Championships 2018 (WBWC). This prospective cohort study was conducted during the WBWC held in Hamburg, Germany, from August 16 to August 26, 2018. Physicians or physiotherapists of all 28 participating teams (total 336 players) were asked to report all newly incurred injuries (with location, diagnosis, cause, and estimated duration of absence) daily on a standardized injury report form. Prevalence and incidence rates were calculated. Medical staff of 11 teams (132 players) reported 100 injuries, equivalent to 75.8 per 100 players (95% CI: 60.9‐90.7) or 68.9 per 1000 player‐days (55.4‐82.4). Eight time‐loss injuries were reported (6.1 injuries per 100 players [95% CI: 1.9‐10.3] or 5.5 injuries per 1000 player‐days [1.7‐9.3]). More injuries were incurred during matches (n = 68) than during training. Most injuries affected the neck/cervical spine (16%), thoracic spine/upper back (15%), and shoulder (14%). The most frequent diagnosis was muscle spasms (25%), the most frequent cause was overuse (52%). A high rate of non–time‐loss injuries compared to Paralympic Games was reported. Future studies should focus on the etiology of muscle spasms and further identify injury mechanisms of traumatic and overuse injuries in wheelchair basketball players to develop adequate preventive measures.

Analysis of team-sport wheelchair falls during the Rio 2016 Summer Paralympic Games: a video-based cross-sectional observational study

“…Wheelchair users with traumatic spinal cord injuries are most prone to falls while playing wheelchair sports, with injuries occurring once every four times 15. Hollander et al reported that 9 out of 100 injuries, which occurred during the WB World Championships 2018 were traumatic injuries due to falls 16. In this previous study, gender differences were compared, and falls caused the 8 out of 42 injuries reported in women.…”

Para sport translation of the IOC consensus on recording and reporting of data for injury and illness in sport

“…[3] Thus, injury and illness incidence rates may underestimate the true burden given the high prevalence of pre-existing repetitive gradual onset injuries and medical conditions. Also, when collecting data in multi-sport events, and when exposure data are incomparable between sports, [25,36,41] we recommend expressing incidence as the number of new cases/number of athletes or athlete days. Sport-specific incidence rates may be more optimally expressed by number of health problems/1000 matches (e.g., badminton, boccia, football, goalball, judo, sitting volleyball, table tennis, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair tennis)…”

Shoulder Injuries in Wheelchair Basketball Players: A Systematic Review

“…Shoulder injuries were reported by 18 patients out of 157 cases. (Hollander et al,2019;And Hoo et al, 2019). Among them, in the studies of Hollander et al Shoulder injury were reported by 9 women and 5 men.…”

“…Among them, in the studies of Hollander et al Shoulder injury were reported by 9 women and 5 men. In addition, in both studies, other upper limb injuries were recorded, such as shoulder (2 cases), elbow (13 cases), wrist (14 cases), hands (2 cases), fingers (6 cases) and hands and/or fingers 10 cases (Hollander et al, 2019). Hoo et al pointed out that four cases of shoulder injuries were generally associated with damage to the rotator cuff structures (Hoo et al, 2019).…”