Views on the quality of life of people with disabilities in the light of their involvement in sport activities

Abstract

Background: ‪The quality of life of people with disabilities is the result of many factors. Apart from health, functional and mental parameters, it is determined by several social conditions. This approach, however, concerns an objective perspective, apart from which there is also a subjective perspective. This is an internal approach that affects the sense of the quality of life, to a limited extent referring to the quality of life itself. Therefore, it can be assumed that the subjective views on the quality of life will be determined by the location in the social context, an example of which is sport activity. The aim of the research was to find out the opinions of disabled athletes about the quality of life in the context of their participation in various forms of physical activities. Material and methods: The research analysis was conducted on 107 disabled athletes and 19 disabled non-athletes. A diagnostic survey method was used with a questionnaire technique. The research tool was the Quality of Life Index, an American scale which belongs to the global category of scales and is composed of a series of questions referring to different areas of life. Results: ‪The results of the survey did not confirm more positive opinions about the quality of life among disabled athletes. The differences between the groups turned out to be statistically insignificant in most cases. Conclusions: ‪Since most of the research results to date indicate a positive impact of regular physical activity on self-esteem and the quality of life, it seems necessary to explore this problem on a larger research sample of people with disabilities.