Adaptive Rock Climbing as a Recreational Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury and Brain Injury: Findings from a Mixed-methods Pilot Study

Research Objectives: To investigate the perceived benefits to individuals with spinal cord injury or brain injury from a single rock-climbing session in the community.
-Physical, mental, emotional, and social changes to an individual from before to after a single rock-climbing session
-How different participant characteristics may impact these changes (e.g. mood, self-esteem) after rock climbing
-Determine if reported benefits demonstrate adaptive climbing’s utility as a therapeutic intervention following spinal cord or brain injury

Design: Exploratory, cross-sectional survey study with the potential to collect longitudinal data. We collected quantitative and qualitative survey data before and after each single rock-climbing session.

Setting: Adaptive rock-climbing program in a local community gym hosted in collaboration with an adaptive non-profit organization and rehabilitation hospital

Participants: N=30 present and former inpatients and outpatients of rehabilitation hospital in the mountainous region of the United States with a history of ABI or SCI

Interventions: Single rock-climbing session with adapted equipment as needed

Main Outcome Measures: Risk Propensity Scale 8-item, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), social and (modified) performance subscales of State Self-esteem Scale, International Fitness Scale (IFIS), Tampa Kinesiophobia Scale- 11, and Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES), alongside demographic information and open-ended qualitative questions

Results: From pre- to post-session, the sample reported significant increases in feeling strong, proud, and inspired, feeling confident about one’s abilities, and self-rated general fitness and muscular strength. Conversely, they also reported significant decreases in feeling scared and nervous, feeling self-conscious, and feeling worried about looking foolish. On average, females showed greater increases in feeling proud and inspired, and greater decreases in feeling upset or displeased with themselves or their performance, compared to men. Greater risk propensity was associated with greater change in feeling excited pre-post session (all ps < .05). Qualitative themes supported quantitative results, with prominent themes of sense of accomplishment, positive mood, enjoyment, connectedness, encouragement/support, and physical improvement as part of the session’s impact.

Conclusions: The results show that participants found a single rock-climbing session to be beneficial across physical, mental, emotional, and social domains. This pilot study has provided insight into the benefits of using rock-climbing as a recreational therapy intervention; further research in this area should be conducted to better understand the benefits of consistent rock-climbing as an intervention as well as benefits based on more specific demographics.

Author(s) Disclosures: N/a