British journal of sports medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Prevention of fall-related injuries in 7-year-old to 12-year-old children: a cluster randomised controlled trial.
To counteract the recently observed increase in forearm fractures in children worldwide, an educational programme to improve fall skills was developed. In this 8-week programme children learned basic martial arts falling techniques in their physical education classes. In this study, the effectiveness of this educational programme to improve fall skills was evaluated. ⋯ Although results did not reach significance because of strong clustering effects, a trend was found suggesting that a school-based educational programme to improve falling skills may be more beneficial for the prevention of falling-related injuries in children with low levels of habitual physical activity.
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'Boosting' is defined as the intentional induction of autonomic dysreflexia (AD) by athletes with a spinal cord injury (SCI) at or above the level of T6 for the purpose of improving sports performance. Boosting has been shown to confer up to a 9.7% improvement in race time. Additionally, to compete in a hazardous dysreflexic state, whether intentional or unintentional, would present an extreme health risk to the athlete. For these reasons, the International Paralympic Committee strictly bans the practice of boosting, and has developed a protocol to test for its presence. ⋯ Testing for the presence of AD in paralympic athletes with SCI prior to competition has been carried out for the first time at three major international paralympic competitions. There have been no positive tests thus far. Knowledge gained during these early testing experiences will be used to guide ongoing refinement of the testing protocol and the development of further educational initiatives.