Mass distribution of wheelchair athletes assessed using DXA scans and biomechanical simulations.

The anthropometries of elite wheelchair racing athletes differ to the generic, able-bodied anthropometries commonly used in computational biomechanical simulations. The impact of using able-bodied parameters on the accuracy of simulations involving wheelchair racing is currently unknown. In this study, athlete-specific mass segment inertial parameters of five elite wheelchair athletes were calculated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans. These were compared against commonly used anthropometrics parameters of data presented in the literature. A computational biomechanical simulation of wheelchair propulsion assessed the sensitivity of athlete-specific mass parameters using Kruskal-Wallis analysis, Mann-Whitney U analysis and Spearman correlations. Substantial between-athlete body mass distribution variances (thigh mass < 14.6% total body mass), and between-limb asymmetries (<62.4%; 3.1 kg) were observed. Compared to non-athletic able-bodied anthropometric data, wheelchair racing athletes demonstrated greater mass in the upper extremities (up to 3.8% total body mass), and less in the lower extremities (up to 9.8% total body mass). Computational simulations were sensitive to individual body mass distribution, with simulation outputs increasing by up to 12.5% when measured segment masses were 14.3% greater than the generic counterpart. These data suggest non-athletic, able-bodied mass segment inertial parameters are inappropriate for analysing elite wheelchair racing motion.