Evaluating the Quality of Life for People with Locomotor Disabilities by Practicing a Certain Sport

Abstract

This present article describes the importance of practicing performance sport for people with disabilities, along with the benefits and changes in the quality life that the latter bring. The purpose of this paper has been to focus our attention on the way people with certain afflictions can overcome the bridge of disability by practicing a sport, taking into account relevant examples, such as participating in two European Handball Championships for athletes in wheelchairs for the Romanian National team. As a leading method of research, we have used a questionnaire which aims to understand the way in which disabled people cope with performance sports and how these activities influence their lives, generally, further analysing auxiliary aspects such as the quality of sleep, adopted diet and social life, to name a few. The questionnaire has been distributed to all players who participated in the two European Championships from 2018 to 2019, from 8 European Union countries, with a sample group of 59 disabled people. Based on this implemented method of action, we have examined the results and have had discussions regarding the significant role of performance sport in the life of people with disabilities, concluding that sport is not merely an isolated subject in their day to day routine, but a quintessential element in many aspects of their contemporaneous living. Sport represents a stable platform for shaping and sustaining certain healthy habits with recommendations that people with disabilities engage in such an endeavour thus managing their physical and mental health and also their social and community lives.