Sports Performance Tests for Amputee Football Players: A Scoping Review

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr 6;19(7):4386. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19074386.

Abstract

Background: This scoping review aims to identify sports performance tests for amputee football players and to critically analyze the methodological quality, validation data, reliability, and standardization of sport-specific tests to indicate the best-fitting tests.

Methods: Electronic database searches were conducted between January 2019 and October 2021. Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria. Qualitative assessment of each study was conducted by STROBE checklist.

Results: Twenty-nine sports performance tests were identified. No sports performance test fully met all three criteria associated with the qualitative assessment of tests. The critical appraisal of the articles demonstrates a gap in study design, settings, and main results description. Some inconsistencies were found in the methodological descriptions of tests assessing the same motor skill. A STROBE score of 13 points was considered a satisfactory score for the article (it was obtained by 8 of the 12 studies). The weakest point of the analyzed studies was the description of how the test group size was accessed and later obtained.

Conclusions: No test was found that was simultaneously presented as valid, reliable, and standardized. The authors can recommend the use of the two-sports performance tests that are the closest to ideal: the L test and the YYIRT1.

Keywords: adapted sport; amputee soccer; assessment; athletes; disability; field-based tests; impairment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Amputees*
  • Athletic Performance*
  • Humans
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Soccer*