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

OBJECTIVES: To present the fall characteristics of athletes playing wheelchair rugby (WR) and wheelchair basketball (WB) using official videos from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and compare the key fall characteristics among the team wheelchair sports event. METHODS: Eighteen WR and 10 WB game videos for men (MWB) and women (WWB), including 8 teams per sport, were obtained from the official International Paralympic Committee of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. The videos were analysed to assess the number of falls, playing time of fall, playing phase, contact with other athletes, the direction of the fall and the body part first in contact with the floor during the fall. RESULTS: In total, 359 falls (96 for WR, 172 for MWB and 91 for WWB) occurred with a mean of 5.3, 17.2 and 9.1 falls per match, respectively (p<0.05). Significant differences among the three sports were detected in the playing time (p=0.011), presence of contact (p=0.037), direction (p<0.001) and body part first in contact with the floor (p<0.001). For WR, the falls were primarily lateral and caused by contact, occurring in the second half of the match. WB falls tended to be in the first half for women and the second half for men. Most falls were contact falls in the forward direction. CONCLUSION: By observing the situational details, we described that a number of falls due to contact occurred during these team sports events, especially MWB. In addition, each sport exhibited characteristics attributable to differences in gender, degree of impairment and game rules. The directions of the falls and characteristics of the affected body parts indicate differences in impairments depending on the sport. A fall to the side or back may indicate a risk of injury.