Participation and physical complaints in a sample of portuguese female artistic roller-skaters: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Objective: Teaching and health professionals need to attain knowledge about the specific needs of artistic roller skaters when aiming to be effective in training and preventing physical complaints or injuries. Hence, the lack of epidemiological studies on artistic roller skaters validates the study to characterise athletes, participation habits and determine the frequency of physical complaints or injuries. Aim: to describe the athlete’s body composi- tion, participation habits and frequency of physical complaints in female artistic roller skaters within the last 12-months. Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional online survey. A web-based survey was specifically developed to gather epidemiological details on female artistic roller skaters. The self-response questionnaire covered participant details, participation habits, injury history, and physical complaints within the last 12 months. Athletes were invited through official and informal com- munication channels devoted to artistic roller-skating. Results: This study included 143 female artistic roller skaters. Sixty-seven (46.9%) athletes experienced 175 episodes (injuries or physical complaints) within the last 12-months, an average of 2.61 complaints per skater. Physical complaints mainly disturbed the lower limbs (53.1%), followed by the trunk (24.0%) and upper limbs (22.9%). The most common places were the knees (16,6%), back (10,9%) and wrists (10,3%). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that artistic roller-skating physical complaints are frequent. Multiple episodes were com- mon. Several factors were associated with physical complaints, including the number of coaches, changing frequency of boots, number of training hours per week, number of training hours before competition, and previous injuries.