Socialization of athletes with disabilities in adapted physical activity 

Laimutė Samsonienė, Rūta Adomaitienė¹, Jurga Krivičiūtė¹, Konstancija Jankauskienė², Vilma Jurkštienė², Egidijus Kėvelaitis²

Health and Sports Center, Vilnius University, ¹Department of Adapted Physical Activity, Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education, ²Department of Physiology, Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania

Key words: taxonomy; sports; disability; social activities; participation.

Summary. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the impairment of the body functions on the participation of people with disabilities in sports activities.

Material and methods. The study was carried out in the institutions mostly attended by people with severe physical disabilities. The participants took a modified Kenny test and answered the questions of a questionnaire. The study sample consisted of 35 persons with severe physical disabilities.

Results. The findings of this study showed that people with disabilities who were not engaged in sports were of much worse opinion about their health condition (P=0.02) and they needed more help from family or friends (P=0.035) compared to the disabled who were not engaged in sports, but in the group of people with disabilities who were engaged in sports, the correlations of those indicators were statistically significant (r=0.59 and r=0.68, respectively). The main motivation of sports participation of people with disabilities (about 80%) was the need for communication and gaining independence. Health improvement was mentioned by less than half of people with disabilities (about 41%) engaged in sports.

Conclusions. The syndrome of movement function impairment, duration of impairment, marital status, the age of persons with disabilities, and objectively determined impairment of biosocial self-service functions did not impact sports participation of people with disabilities. However, subjective sensation of pain and the need of medical aid, which did not match the objective functional impairments, could be the obstacle for people with disabilities to participate in sports.

Correspondence to L. Samsonienė, Health and Sports Center at Vilnius University, Saulėtekio 2, 10222 Vilnius, Lithuania. E-mail: laimute@dalila.lt

Received 26 March 2008, accepted 27 June 2008