Utveckling av ett multifunktionellt båltest för sittande Paralympiska idrotter

Winning or losing in Paralympic sport should not depend on the level of impairment of the athlete. Therefore, Paralympic sports develop classification systems to minimize the impact of impairment on the outcome of competition. In seated Paralympic sports such as wheelchair basketball and Nordic skiing, the impact of the remaining function of the trunk on sport-specific performance is not well understood.

Available trunk function tests ail to explain the variability in sport performance because the tests are clinical-based and not performance-based, or the tests do not cover the complete functional profile integrating measurements of trunk muscle strength, RoM and coordination. Furthermore, current trunk tests are not compatible with the diverse functional profiles of Paralympic athletes competing in a diversity of Paralympic sports.

Therefore, the overall goal of the project is to develop a non-sport-specific trunk multi-function test to assess Paralympic athletes with impairment in strength, RoM, and/or coordination in seated Paralympic sports.

We achieve this overall goal through a successive methodological approach:
(a) Centralizing the scientific and professional knowledge through literature review; a Delphi study with representation of classifiers from the different sport federations governing seated Para-sports; and a preparatory consensus expert meeting.
(b) Original experiment conducting the trunk multi-function test in a group of Para-athletes with impairment in trunk strength, RoM and/or coordination (n=40) and an able-bodied control group (n=20). We explore the intra-/inter-reliability and the validity of the trunk multi-function test.
(c) We bring all the evidence from (a) and (b) to the table in a concluding consensus expert meeting.

We anticipate that the outcome of the project will be a trunk test with sufficient psychometric properties. Consequently, we will make the test available to the sport organizations governing seated Paralympic sports.

We engaged representatives from a variety of seated Paralympic sports in the project. These representatives were selected because of their unique dual role in Paralympic sport, i.e. researcher and international classifier. This dual competence, along with the communication lines with the governing sport federations, strengthens the ecological validity of the results and opens realistic avenues for implementation.

Paralympics är en av världens största tävlingar. För att tävla krävs det att idrottarna genomgår klassificering. Utifrån funktionsförmåga delas idrottarna in i olika sportklasser för att öka rättvisan. I dag saknas ett komplett bålfunktionstest för samtliga sittande idrotter.

I detta projekt avser vi därför att a) centralisera nuvarande kunskap (en internationell expertgrupp bildas, en Delhistudie genomförs), b) funktionella och laboratoriebaserade båltester genomförs på idrottare med nedsatt muskelstyrka, koordinationsförmåga eller rörelseförmåga (n=40) och en kontrollgrupp (n=20), samt c) expertmöten genomförs där kunskap från a) och b) sammanställs för att utveckla ett evidensbaserat båltestbatteri. Kunskap sprids därefter till samtliga Paralympiska aktörer världen över.