Abstract
Abstract — Aims : This study aimed to identify Brazilian wheelchair tennis athletes’ quality of life and to compare the perception scores between competitive and elite athletes. Methods : Participants were wheelchair tennis athletes (N = 31) from Brazil (males = 25, females = 6) divided into two groups: competitive and elite. Data was collected using the Brazilian version of the WHOQOL-Bref. The WHOQOL-Bref asks two general questions, and is thereafter divided into four main domains: 1) physical, psychological, social, and environment, which give us an understanding of their overall quality of life perception. Results : The results showed that overall, 29 out of the 31 athletes perceived their quality of life positively, regardless of the competitive level. However, statistically higher perceptions were found in the physical domain and the total score of quality of life of the elite group. Conclusion : The findings of this study suggest that even though participation in high-performance adapted sports may offer a stressful and exhausting environment, elite wheelchair tennis athletes from Brazil perceive themselves as having a better QoL than competitive athletes.Keywords: adapted sports, people with disability, quality of life, elite athletes.
Highlights
Individuals with disabilities have often experienced inequities in various areas of life that negatively affected their overall physical and mental health, and their quality of life (QoL)[1,2]
Higher scores were found in the elite group regarding the physical domain (p=.003) and the total score of QoL (p=.001), whereas no statistical differences were found regarding the psychological (p=.105), social (p=.095), and environment domains (p=.323)
The effect size indicated a moderate difference between the groups analyzed for the physical domain and the total score of QoL perception (See Table 4)
Summary
Individuals with disabilities have often experienced inequities in various areas of life that negatively affected their overall physical and mental health, and their quality of life (QoL)[1,2]. One of the areas where these inequities are present is sports. The good news is that worldwide there is a push to promote people with disabilities’ participation in adapted sports so they can acquire the multiple health, social, and psychological benefits that often result[5,6,7]. Adapted sports have been identified as an option for promoting an overall better QoL of athletes with disabilities[9,10,11,12,13]
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