Paragliding as a sport with scientific interest: Not only about traumatology

Objectives. The objective of the current study was to assess the research interest of paragliding on a global scale and to discover the area of main interest within the scientific community. Until now, no systematic reviews have been performed on this subject. Methods. A systematic review of studies performed up to and including November 1st 2018 was conducted using different terms such as “paragliding”, “paraglider” and “paraglide”. Results. 22 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis. Finally, they were distributed between different areas of interest according to their objectives and results. Conclusions. The results show that despite the increasing popularity of this sport discipline, scientific production has been scarce and is not increasing with time. There is a clear predominance of research articles around traumatology and injuries in this sport discipline despite the fact that multidisciplinary approaches could be conducted in order to investigate this sport discipline and the apparent lack of previous investigations around this subject. Future research should be conducted around other areas of interest and not involving only traumatic reports.