A total of 413 athletes with physical disabilities participated in the study, 157 Spanish athletes and 260 Latin American athletes. The athletes were contacted through different sports federations, Paralympic Committees and sports teams of people with disabilities.For the distribution of the questionnaire, the researcher made an initial telephone contact with the Spanish Paralympic Committee and the Spanish Sports Federation for People with Physical Disabilities, to explain the objectives of the study and ask for their collaboration in the dissemination. Subsequently, the information was officially sent to them by email.

An ad-hoc questionnaire was developed with questions that sought to respond to the specific objectives of this study, taking into consideration the information obtained in the previous qualitative study. The questionnaire consisted of 74 questions, 68 closed multiple-choice and 6 open-ended, organised into six sections: characteristics of the athlete, how pain affects their sporting career, tolerance and acceptance of pain, techniques and strategies for managing pain, social support for pain management and finally difficulties in pain management. A Likert scale from 1 (very infrequently) to 5 (very often) was used.Depending on the interpretation of the questions asked in each section, higher scores mean a better or worse result.