Gustavo Viotto-Gonçalves - gustavogoncalves@estudante.ufscar.br
Victor Carvalho Machado Coelho,
Letícia Perciani de Godoi,
Natalia Duarte Pereira,
Paula Regina Mendes da Silva Serrão

Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil

Deaf sports involve athletic activities performed by athletes who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HoH), contributing to the development of self-esteem, quality of life, and increased social participation among members of the Deaf community.
Therefore, physical therapeutic intervention plays a crucial role in maintaining and improving the functional capacity of this population.
To achieve this, physical therapists employ various modalities and interventions that impact the biopsychosocial aspects of their patients, fostering their functional development.
Understanding the modalities and interventions utilized by Brazilian physical therapists with the population of athletes who are D/HoH is extremely important for comprehending the role of physical therapy in Brazilian Deaf sports, however, there is a lack of literature highlighting this information.
To assess the modalities and interventions Brazilian physical therapists employ in Deaf sports.
This is a pilot study conducted concurrently with an approved cross-sectional exploratory quantitative analytical study by the Ethics Committee for Research with Human Subjects at UFSCar (CAAE: 58267522.0.0000.5504).
Brazilian physical therapists, both female and male, who had been working in Deaf sports for at least 3 months and were affiliated with state Deaf sports federations or the Brazilian Confederation of Deaf Sports (CBDS), participated in the study.
An online semi-structured questionnaire developed by the research team was utilized, covering questions on personal and demographic data, professional background, and modalities and interventions.
Six physical therapists participated in the study (29.5±3.79 years old), evenly distributed between men (50%, n=3) and women (50%, n=3), with an average professional experience of 30.17 months in the field.
All participants (100%, n=6) were engaged in sports physical therapy, but parallel areas of practice were reported, such as trauma-orthopedic physical therapy (83.34%, n=5), acupuncture physical therapy (33.34%, n=2), osteopathic physical therapy (33.34%, n=2), chiropractic physical therapy (16.67%, n=1), and intensive care physical therapy (16.67%, n=1).
Regarding the modalities and interventions used by physical therapists, all participants (100%, n=6) reported using muscle strengthening exercises, muscle stretching exercises, joint mobility exercises, sensorimotor exercises, electrotherapy, and functional training.
Additionally, among the most commonly used modalities and interventions, participants also reported the use of aerobic exercises (83.34%, n=5), myofascial release (83.34%, n=5), rigid taping (83.34%, n=5), dry needling (83.34%, n=5), pain education (83.34%, n=5), movement retraining (83.34%, n=5), cryotherapy (66.67%, n=4), and functional taping (66.67%, n=4).
Future studies are necessary to understand the evidence supporting these modalities and interventions in addressing the primary injuries encountered by professionals working with athletes who are D/HoH.

Keywords: physical therapy; persons with hearing impairments; sports for persons with Disabilities.

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