CHHS researcher studying health outcomes from playing disability sports
J.P. Barfield, chair of the Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences, is a recognized researcher in the field of disability and Paralympic sports. Recently, he interviewed wheelchair rugby athletes for his research project on Para sport concussions.
“With the chairs making such forceful contact, athletes can experience whiplash,” said Barfield. “Unlike other sports, it’s not the player-to-player contact that causes injuries, it’s the jolt of the chair or falling out of the chair that’s problematic.”
Barfield’s research focuses on health-related and quality-of-life outcomes of sports for athletes with physical impairments. He has published extensively on athletes with cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury and muscular dystrophy, and he studies how acute responses to sport project to chronic functional changes.
A board member for the International Federation of Adapted Physical Activity, Barfield also is serving as treasurer and head of classification for the Fédération Internationale de Powerchair Football Association, which is the international governing body for powerchair football (also known as powerchair soccer.
Powerchair soccer is a sanctioned sport of the Paralympic Movement and is under review for inclusion in the summer Paralympic Games.
Barfield travels the globe on behalf of FIPFA to classify athletes for competition. FIPFA’s classification system minimizes the impact of impairment on the outcome of competition, therefore, the athletes who succeed in competition do so based on their sporting ability. To achieve this, athletes are evaluated and put into sport classes according to the extent of activity limitation resulting from their impairment.
There are 10 eligible impairment types in Para sports, including limb deficiency, impaired muscle power and leg length difference.
As part of his research that integrates with his professional service, Barfield works with UNC Charlotte assistant professor Yinghao Pan, a biostatistician in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, to set the grouping criteria for powerchair soccer classification, which is part of the requirements of the International Paralympic Committee.
Wheelchair athletes participate in study
In early January, Barfield hosted a two-day wheelchair rugby tournament in UNC Charlotte’s Belk Gym, which houses the educational spaces, labs, and offices for the Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences. The building also offers three multipurpose hardwood basketball and volleyball courts, two racquetball courts, badminton courts, locker rooms and a pool.
The annual Queen City Collision wheelchair rugby tournament is organized by Atrium Health’s Adaptive Sports and Adventures Program, which sponsors the Carolina Crash, Charlotte’s only wheelchair rugby team. Five teams, including Charlotte and Raleigh’s Sidewinders, participated in the 2025 tournament. The other three teams were from out of state.
Barfield hosted the tournament in 2024 and plans to host it in 2026 and beyond. Holding the tournament on campus provides a free and accessible facility for the games, and it gives Barfield direct access to research participants.
Over the course of this year’s tournament, Barfield and members of his research team surveyed more than 40 athletes for his study on the treatment of concussion in Para sport, which is a continuation of prior research where he looked at baseline concussion testing in this population. At the Queen City Classic wheelchair basketball tournament in Rock Hill, South Carolina, last November, Barfield and his team interviewed 65 athletes for the study.
Baseline scores are needed to access concussions, and there are limited baseline scores for athletes with disabilities. Initially, Barfield established baseline concussion test scores using a common instrument.
“Now, we’re looking at how health care changes around concussion based on competition setting so that all players can access a good referral,” he said. “We’re looking at what level — grassroots, regional, national — do players feel they have adequate health care to assess and treat head injuries.”
The goal of the research is to share with national and international organizations where there are gaps in health care services for athletes with disabilities who have been affected by concussions.
“Do we need to find ways to get more athletic trainers at the grassroots level or is it for national tournaments? It is educating organizations about how to update their health care policies and procedures,” Barfield said.
Read more on the College of Health and Human Services website at https://health.charlotte.edu/2025/03/04/research-looks-at-health-outcomes-from-playing-disability-sports/.
Photo, center, J.P. Barfield and student Samantha Webb interview a player from the Carolina Crash wheelchair rugby team.