Quality of life of athletes with disability and some aspects of equal possibilities

Laimutė Samsonienė¹, Algirdas Baubinas², Rūta Adomaitienė³, Konstancija Jankauskienė⁴, Igor Korotkich⁴, Egidijus Kėvelaitis⁴

¹Health and Sports Center, Vilnius University, ²Institute of Public Health, Vilnius University, ³Department of Adapted Physical Activity, Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education, ⁴Department of Physiology, Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania

Key words: sports; disability; quality of life; equal possibilities.

Summary. The International Olympic and Paralympic Committees have decided that in 2012, the Olympic and Parolympic Games in London will take place at the same time. For this reason, the aim of our study was to determine whether athletes with disability in Lithuania have the same possibilities for sports – and thus for integration into the unified Lithuanian sports system – as those without disability.

An anonymous inquiry of athletes with and without disability was performed in 2006. We analyzed 235 questionnaires filled in by the participants of the study; 159 subjects were with and 76 without disability. The Lithuanian Paralympic Committee approved the questionnaires and gave an agreement for the study. The inquiry was performed in Lithuanian sports clubs for the persons with disability and in the Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education. The obtained findings about the respondents’ personality and environmental factors indicated that the indices of self-awareness in all athletes without disability were significantly higher than in athletes with disability (P<0.05). More than one-half (56.6%) of the respondents without disability indicated that their life was meaningful, whereas the respective percentage of athletes with disability was only 33.8% (P<0.05). As many as 59% of the respondents without disability were satisfied with their quality of life, compared to 36.2% of the respondents with disability. More than one-half (56.6%) of athletes without disability indicated that sports played an important role in their lives, whereas the respective percentage of athletes with disability was significantly lower – 33.2%. Only one-half (51.6%) of the participants with disability of the study had a permanent instructor (coach). The absolute majority of the respondents (irrespectively of the presence or absence of disability) indicated that sports helped them realize their potential. According to our findings, the majority of the respondents without disability (74.6%) and the absolute majority of respondents with disability (92.5%) indicated that sports of the persons with disability is not sufficiently propagated in mass media. Age and sex did not have any influence on the factors studied. Insufficient information about sports of the persons with disability and significantly lower indices in personality, physical and social environmental factors among athletes with disability are the main obstacles in the creation of an independent social sports system for the persons with disability and integration of these athletes into the general Lithuanian sports system in the aspect of equal possibilities.

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

Received 22 May 2009, accepted 5 March 2010