Abstract
Wessels KK, Broglio SP, Sosnoff JJ. Concussions in wheelchair basketball.
Objective
To estimate the incidence rate of concussions in wheelchair basketball.
Design
Survey.
Setting
Wheelchair basketball tournaments during the 2009 to 2010 season.
Participants
Wheelchair basketball players (N=263) ranging in age from 18 to 60 years.
Intervention
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Participants completed a survey on their concussion history including how many concussions
they have sustained, how many days they refrained from physical activity because of
injury, to whom they reported their injury, and reasons for not reporting an injury
if they did not. Participants also provided demographic information about their disability,
age, sex, and length of wheelchair use and sports participation.
Results
Within the sample of 263 wheelchair basketball players, 6.1% reported experiencing
a concussion in the current season. Of those experiencing concussions during the current
season, 44% did not report their concussion. Of those not reporting the incident,
67% did not because they did not want to be removed from physical activity. Analysis
by sex indicated that 5.82% of the male athletes sustained a concussion during the
current season, and 14.36% had sustained an injury during their athletic career. Female
athletes, however, sustained concussions at a higher rate, with 6.67% having concussions
during the current season and 30.6% during their athletic careers. Women were also
2.5 times more likely to sustain a concussion than men. Athletes were most likely
to report their concussion to their coach (60% of concussed athletes).
Conclusions
The current investigation was consistent with previous research in that women were
more likely to sustain a concussion than men, and injury rates were similar to those
in able-bodied basketball. Further work is needed in concussion assessment in persons
with disability, as well as greater education concerning concussion in disability
sports.
Key Words
List of Abbreviations:
mTBI (mild traumatic brain injury), TBI (traumatic brain injury)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Footnotes
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
