title: Sport Injuries Sustained by Athletes with Disability: A Systematic Review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Fifteen percent of the world's population live with disability, and many of these individuals choose to play sport. There are barriers to sport participation for athletes with disability and sports injury can greatly impact on daily life, which makes sports injury prevention additionally important.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this review is to systematically review the definitions, methodologies and injury rates in disability sport, which should assist future identification of risk factors and development of injury prevention strategies. A secondary aim is to highlight the most pressing issues for improvement of the quality of injury epidemiology research for disability sport.
  
  
  METHODS
  A search of NICE, AMED, British Nursing Index, CINAHL, EMBASE and Medline was conducted to identify all publications up to 16 June 2015. Of 489 potentially relevant articles and reference searching, a total of 15 studies were included. Wide study sample heterogeneity prevented data pooling and meta-analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results demonstrated an evolving field of epidemiology, but with wide differences in sports injury definition and with studies focused on short competitions. Background data were generally sparse; there was minimal exposure analysis, and no analysis of injury severity, all of which made comparison of injury risk and injury severity difficult.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is an urgent need for consensus on sports injury definition and methodology in disability sports. The quality of studies is variable, with inconsistent sports injury definitions, methodologies and injury rates, which prevents comparison, conclusions and development of injury prevention strategies. The authors highlight the most pressing issues for improvement of the quality in injury epidemiology research for disability sport.
authors: Amsterdam Collaboration on Health and Safety in Sports, Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. rweiler@doctors.org.uk.|The FA Centre for Disability Football Research, St Georges Park, Burton-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire, UK. rweiler@doctors.org.uk.|University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK. rweiler@doctors.org.uk.|Fortius Clinic, London, UK. rweiler@doctors.org.uk.
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Weiler
authors: Amsterdam Collaboration on Health and Safety in Sports, Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.|School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.|UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (ESSM), Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors: Willem
authors: W
authors: Van Mechelen
authors: Colin Fuller Consultancy Ltd, Sutton Bonington, UK.
authors: Colin
authors: C
authors: Fuller
authors: Amsterdam Collaboration on Health and Safety in Sports, Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (ESSM), Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.|Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, VIC, Australia.
authors: Evert
authors: E
authors: Verhagen
mesh_terms: D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D064846:Sports for Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*