Clinical trial NCT02788500: The Sports-Related Injuries and Illnesses in Para-sport Study (SRIIPS)
Official title: The Sports-Related Injuries and Illnesses in Para-sport Study (SRIIPS): A Prospective Longitudinal Study
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Athletic Injuries
Keywords: Epidemiology
Sports medicine
Research protocol
Athletic injuries
Sports for persons with disabilities
Lead sponsor: Lund University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Linkoeping University
First posted: 2016-06-02
Enrollment: 107
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 55
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: The total population of athletes (n=approximately 100) in the Swedish Paralympic program, which covers possbile candidates for the Paralympic Games.

Brief summary: The overall aim of this project is to gain an in-depth understanding of the epidemiology of sports-related injuries and illnesses in parasport in order to assist the identification and development of specific injury prevention strategies adapted to parasport.

Detailed description: The Paralympic Games is today one of the largest sport event in the world. During the last decades parasport has in many ways become elite sport, allowing people with disabilities to achieve extraordinary heights of functional capability. With the growing number of athletes there is an increased interest in athletes' health and safety, both to enhance sports performance and to prevent injuries.

Even though it is well-known that participation in sports places the athlete at risk for injuries, there are few studies covering sports-related injuries and illnesses in parasport (SRIIP). Today, some injuries and illnesses are known to be preventable. However, this requires regular monitoring of internal and external load during athletic preparation. Standardized injury surveillances have been implemented within several sports for abled-bodied athletes, but such studies do not yet exist within parasport.

In our review article (Fagher \& Lexell 2014) the investigators showed that existing studies of sports-related injuries in athletes with disabilities have a variable quality and that specific disability related factors have not been examined. Further studies are therefore warranted to obtain an increased in-depth knowledge of SRIIP. With a systematic longitudinal surveillance system tailored to parasport it would be possible to observe trends and risk factors over time, and thereby have a basis for developing specific preventive measures.

The overall aim of this project is to gain an in-depth understanding of the epidemiology of SRIIP in parasport in order to assist the identification and development of specific injury prevention strategies adapted to parasport.

The specific aims are: i) to design and implement a study protocol for prospective epidemiological studies of SRIIP in parasport; ii) to prospectively estimate the annual incidence of SRIIP among Swedish Paralympic athletes; and iii) to explore risk factors and mechanisms for sustaining SRIIP based on athlete exposure in order to form the basis for moving towards safe participation in parasport.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age 18-55 years
* Being a registered competitive athlete within the Swedish Paralympic Program/Organization
* Being able to communicate in Swedish and having the opportunity to every week answer a web-based questionnaire.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Incidence of sports-related injuries and illnesses
timeFrame: Weekly during one year
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Exposure of training
timeFrame: Weekly during one year
measure: Pain
timeFrame: Weekly during one year
measure: General well-being
timeFrame: Weekly during one year
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Lund
country: Sweden
facility: Rehabilitation Medicine Research group
Study officials:
affiliation: Lund University
name: Jan Lexell, Professor
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Fagher K, Lexell J. Sports-related injuries in athletes with disabilities. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2014 Oct;24(5):e320-31. doi: 10.1111/sms.12175. Epub 2014 Jan 15.
citation: Jacobsson J, Timpka T, Ekberg J, Kowalski J, Nilsson S, Renstrom P. Design of a protocol for large-scale epidemiological studies in individual sports: the Swedish Athletics injury study. Br J Sports Med. 2010 Dec;44(15):1106-11. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.2009.067678. Epub 2010 May 19.
citation: Timpka T, Alonso JM, Jacobsson J, Junge A, Branco P, Clarsen B, Kowalski J, Mountjoy M, Nilsson S, Pluim B, Renstrom P, Ronsen O, Steffen K, Edouard P. Injury and illness definitions and data collection procedures for use in epidemiological studies in Athletics (track and field): consensus statement. Br J Sports Med. 2014 Apr;48(7):483-90. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2013-093241.
citation: Lexell J, Loven G, Fagher K. Incidence of sports-related concussion in elite para athletes - a 52-week prospective study. Brain Inj. 2021 Jul 3;35(8):971-977. doi: 10.1080/02699052.2021.1942551. Epub 2021 Jun 29.
citation: Fagher K, Jacobsson J, Dahlstrom O, Timpka T, Lexell J. An eHealth Application of Self-Reported Sports-Related Injuries and Illnesses in Paralympic Sport: Pilot Feasibility and Usability Study. JMIR Hum Factors. 2017 Nov 29;4(4):e30. doi: 10.2196/humanfactors.8117.
citation: Fagher K, Jacobsson J, Timpka T, Dahlstrom O, Lexell J. The Sports-Related Injuries and Illnesses in Paralympic Sport Study (SRIIPSS): a study protocol for a prospective longitudinal study. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil. 2016 Aug 30;8(1):28. doi: 10.1186/s13102-016-0053-x. eCollection 2016.