You are here

  • Home
  • Online First
  • Single case experimental design: a rigorous method for addressing inequity and enhancing precision within Para sport and exercise medicine research

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Editorial
Single case experimental design: a rigorous method for addressing inequity and enhancing precision within Para sport and exercise medicine research
  1. Sean Tweedy1,2,
  2. Iain Mayank Dutia1,3,
  3. John Cairney1,2,
  4. Emma Beckman1,4
  1. 1The School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Queensland, Australia
  2. 2The Queensland Centre for Olympic and Paralympic Studies, The University of Queensland - St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  3. 3School of Allied Health, Australian Catholic University, Banyo Campus, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  4. 4Para sport, Queensland Academy of Sport, Sunnybank, Queensland, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sean Tweedy; s.tweedy{at}uq.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2024-108587

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Approximately 4400 athletes from 184 nations competed in 22 sports at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. However, it is recognised that athletes with more severe disabilities and high support needs are under-represented in sport, and strategies to increase representation are required. Focusing on individuals with cerebral palsy (CP), we present evidence that people with high support needs are also under-represented in Para sport and exercise medicine (P-SEM) research. We outline why single case experimental designs (SCEDs) are a rigorous and effective means of addressing under-representation in P-SEM research.

    Cerebral palsy

    CP is an eligible underlying health condition for 17 of the 22 Paralympic sports. It results from a non-progressive brain lesion and is defined as a heterogeneous group of permanent disorders affecting movement and posture.1 CP heterogeneity is multidimensional and can be classified based on:

    • Neurological subtype: Spastic CP (quadriplegia/diplegia/hemiplegia); dyskinetic; ataxic; and mixed.2 Subtypes vary in severity and anatomical distribution.

    • Functional effects: The Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) is the most common and has five levels: GMFCS level I (least severe) and II are able to walk independently; GMFCS IV/V use wheeled mobility and typically have high support needs (CP-HSN).

    Additionally 95% of people with CP have >1 comorbidity2 but CP-HSN have a greater prevalence of serious comorbidity including cortical blindness, deafness, gavage feeding and seizure disorders.3

    Exercise training research in people with CP

    At least three major reviews have analysed randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluate exercise training in people with CP and all report that CP-HSN participants are under-represented.4–6 CP-HSN constitutes approximately 30% of the CP population7 but …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors ST is the guarantor of this work. All authors made substantial contributions to conception of the work, provided critical revisions, approved the final version and agreed to be accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the work.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests ST, JC and EB work for The University of Queensland, the Official Higher Education Partner for Paralympics Australia. EB is on secondment as Head of Parasport with the Queensland Academy of Sport and Paralympics Australia. ST is a member of the International Paralympic Committee’s Classification Compliance and Oversight Committee and a member of World Para Athletics Classification Advisory Group.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.