Exercise and Weight Management in Persons with a Spinal Cord Injury

On the 8th of June, the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport organised the online symposium “Exercise and Weight Management in Persons with a Spinal Cord Injury”.

The event was attended by more than 150 people, with backgrounds ranging from clinical professionals and academics to persons living with SCI. Each session consisted of a 20 min presentation, followed by 10 min of questions.

A spinal cord injury (SCI) is associated with a substantial reduction in total daily energy expenditure. Consequently, persons with SCI are susceptible to weight gain, and eventually obesity. Indeed, it is estimated that nearly 70% of adults with SCI in the UK have overweight, with ~30% having obesity. While lifestyle modifications targeting exercise and diet are generally believed to contribute to successful weight loss or management, SCI presents a multitude of challenges in the study and creation of such interventions.

The event has been recorded and can be viewed here. In case you are looking for a specific presentation, the programme and the specific timings of each presentation can be found below.

We hope this is useful for your practice or research activities!

Programme

Timings correspond to the recording below:

00:15 Opening by Prof. Vicky Tolfrey (Loughborough University)

Energy balance (Chair: Mr Jordan Fenton (Loughborough University))

09:45   Dr James King (Loughborough University) – appetite regulation in persons with SCI

37:51   Dr Tom Nightingale (University of Birmingham) – measuring components of energy balance in persons with SCI

Clinical perspectives (Chair: Ms Vicki Middleton (Royal Princess Spinal Cord Injuries Centre Sheffield ))

01:09:55 Dr Samford Wong (Stoke Mandeville Hospital) – Weight management for persons with SCI position stand

01:39:22 Ms Claire Lincoln (Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit) – Collaborative research between academia and clinical practice

Exercise and nutritional interventions (Chair: Dr Sven Hoekstra (Loughborough University))

02:08:30 Prof. Vicky Tolfrey (Loughborough University) – Exercise guidelines for adults with SCI

02:39:39 Dr Sonja de Groot (Reade Rehabilitation Centre) – Health interventions in persons with SCI

03:07:48 Dr Claudio Perret (Swiss Paraplegic Centre) – Nutritional interventions for health promotion; lessons learned from elite athletes

03:39:05 General discussion on future research directions