Sports on Quality of Life of Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury: A Case Series

Introduction and objective: The spinal cord injury is a trauma of physical and social impact to the individual, which causes profound changes in the lives of those affected by the resultant paraplegia or quadriplegia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of quality of life of individuals with spinal cord injury before and after a period of sport training. Methods: The study included 16 people with paraplegia by spinal cord injury, who underwent sports training of basketball in wheelchairs, with a frequency of 2 times per week for a period of 1 year. To assess the quality of life before and after the training period, we used the SF-36. Results: There was overall improvement in quality of life (p = 0.006) when considering the mean of all areas of the questionnaire PRE (605.7) and POST (651.9) training combined scores. Additionally, the analysis of the results showed statistically significant improvement in functional capacity (p = 0.004), general health (p = 0.001) and emotional aspects (p = 0.02). Conclusion: Sports can promote improvement in quality of life for people who need a wheelchair for mobility, and represent new goals and challenges in continuing the process of rehabilitation.