Adaptive Sports: Perceived Barriers And Facilitators To Participation In An Underserved Area.

Abstract

PURPOSE: The main objective is to analyze the perceived barriers and facilitators to participating in adaptive sports by people living with disabilities in an underserved area. METHODS: A telephone survey was performed on people living with disabilities in the Bronx. Inclusion criteria: 18-89 years old, all genders and ethnicities, all types of impairment types, except intellectual disability, as stated by the International Paralympic Committee. Data will be presented in simple descriptive statistics. A qualitative review of the open commentary responses was also performed. RESULTS: We obtained 59 (25.3%) successful telephone surveys out of 233 people, 147 (63.1%) had communication problems, 25 (10.7%) were not interested in participating, 2 were younger than 18 years old. 28 men (47.5%) and 31 women (52.5%) participated, with a mean age of 48 years old (SD 16.2). 49 people (83%) answered they would like to participate in adaptive sports. The three most common barriers were transportation, lack of information of events, and poor timing (19, 15, 15%); the three most common facilitators were meeting new people, low-cost transportation, knowing physicians will be there/free event (17, 16, 11%); the three most common motivator factors were fun, social inclusion, and free snacks (25, 20, 14%); the best days for participation were Saturday and Friday (21% each) starting at 10 or 11 AM (20 and 19%). 49% preferred phone for communication and 37% e-mail. CONCLUSION: Most people want to participate in adaptive sports, we found that important barriers, to those in the literature, in our population studied were access to information and adequate time. More studies need to be made to understand if intervening on effective communication and advocacy are cost-effective in developing successful adaptive sports programs in underserved areas to enhance participation; rather than focusing on the well-known, and costly, barriers of transportation and infrastructure.