Disclosures: Alyson Galanga, BS: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Background and/or Objectives: People with more severe physical disabilities, compared to those with no or less severe disabilities, face more barriers in society to access activities, including school/work events, social interactions, and leisure activities, all of which may impact the development of neurocognitive skills. Some studies suggest physical activity contributes to improvements in attention and executive functions. Our study assessed the impact of 12 weeks of organized sports program participation on neurocognitive functional changes in wheelchair athletes representing a spectrum of physical function levels.

Design: Prospective cohort study

Setting: Large urban recreational facility with organized sports programs for individuals with physical disabilities.

Participants: Adult wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball athletes [n = 14, mean age = 35 (21-53)].

Interventions: Neurocognitive assessments performed on athletes prior to and after 12 weeks of participation in either an organized wheelchair rugby or wheelchair basketball program.

Main Outcome Measures: 1) Neurocognitive assessment battery, providing a total score incorporating attention, memory, coordination, perception, and reasoning domains. 2) Sport classification as a metric for physiological function.

Results: A significant regression equation was found (F(1,12) = 6.139, p < 0.03), R2 = 0.338, R2adjusted = 0.283. The regression coefficient (B = -23.841) indicated that a decrease in 1 scaled sport class point corresponded, on average, to an increase in neurocognitive score of 23.841 points after 12 weeks of organized sports participation compared to athletes’ pre-season neurocognitive scores.

Conclusions: This study’s results demonstrated an inverse relationship between physiological function (as represented by sport class) and derived neurocognitive improvement in wheelchair athletes after 12 weeks of organized sports participation. This may suggest that athletes with lesser physiological function experience a greater neurocognitive benefit from sports participation than those with greater physiological function. Sports participation for most individuals can incite benefits and improvements to overall health, and while these benefits are tremendous, we see the greatest benefit in more severely impaired individuals.

Level of Evidence: Level II

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/sport-participation-in-wheelchair-athletes-positively-impacts-neurocognitive-function/