The impact of sports on the self-perception of quality of life of visually impaired people

Oko 4% osoba u svijetu ima neki vidni poremećaj. U Republici Hrvatskoj ima registriranih gotovo 18 tisuća ljudi s oštećenjem vida. Sigurno svi nisu registrirani tako da je ta brojka i nešto veća. Na kvalitetu života osobe utječu subjektivne i objektivne varijable. Na kvalitetu života osobe s oštećenjem vida utječe samo oštećenje, međutim i prilagodba na oštećenje, okolina, rehabilitacija i brojni drugi faktori. Osobe s oštećenjem vida se u malom broju uključuju u sport. Tome doprinosi životno okruženje i osobne barijere. Naravno postoje i olakšavajući te poticajni faktori zbog kojih se neke osobe ipak uključe u sport, štoviše dolaze do svjetskih i europskih natjecanja te Paraolimpijskih igara. Stoga je cilj ovog diplomskog rada ispitati utječe li bavljenje sportom i u kojoj mjeri na samopercepciju kvalitete života osoba s oštećenjem vida. Želi se utvrditi postoji li razlika u samopercepciji kvalitete života između sportaša i nesportaša s oštećenjem vida u cjelini i po domenama. Osim toga želi se utvrditi utječe li spol, stupanj oštećenja vida te vrsta sporta na samopercepciju kvalitete života ovih osoba. Uzorak sudionika činilo je 25 osoba mlađe životne dobi (18-33 god.). Od 25 sudionika njih 15 se bavi sportom od čega 8 profesionalno, a 7 rekreativno. Podaci su se prikupljali pomoću upitnika kvalitete života IVI (Impact of vision impairment) (Lamoreux i sur., 2008). Za kvantitativnu obradu podataka korišten je SPSS. Rezultati su pokazali da postoji razlika u samopercepciji kvalitete života između sportaša i nesportaša s oštećenjem vida u domenama „Mobilnost i neovisnost“ i „Emocionalno blagostanje“ te u ukupnoj kvaliteti života. Također, postoji razlika u samopercepciji ukupne kvalitete života između slijepih i slabovidnih ispitanika, profesionalnih i rekreativnih sportaša, timskih i pojedinačnih sportaša, te sportaša koji se bave sportom specifičnim za osobe s oštećenjem vida i sportaša koji se bave nekim drugim sportom. Razlika nije pronađena u samopercepciji ukupne kvalitete života između muškaraca i žena te između sportaša i nesportaša s oštećenjem vida u domeni „Čitanje i pristup informacijama“.Approximately 4% of people in the world have a vision impairment. In Croatia there are nearly 18 thousand people registered with a vision impairment. The number is surely somewhat bigger because not all of them are registered. There are subjective and objective variables that influence on the quality of life of a person with a vision impairment. The impairment is not the only thing that influences their quality of life, but also the adjustment to the impairment, the environment, rehabilitation and many other factors. They rarely play any sports. Environmental and personal barriers contribute to that. Of course there are also factors that encourage some of them to take up a sport, moreover, they even get to world and european competitions and Paralympic games. Therefore the aim of this research is to test if doing sports in some way influences the self-perceived quality of life of a person with a vision impairment. It wants to determine if there is a difference in the self-perceived quality of life between people with vision impairments who do or don’t do sports in whole and in domains. Except that it wants to determine if gender, level of vision impairment or the type of sport influence the self-perceived quality of life of those people. The sample was made up of 25 participants of young age (18-33 years). Out of 25 participants 15 of them play a sport, 8 of them professionally and 7 for recreation. The data was collected with the help of a Questionnaire on the quality of life IVI (Impact of vision impairment) (Lamoreux i sur., 2008). SPSS was used for the quantitative processing of the data. Results showed that there is a difference in the self-perceived quality of life amongst people with vision impairment who do sports and those who don’t in domains “Mobility and independence” and “Emotional well-being” and in the overall quality of life. Moreover, there is a difference in self-perceived quality of life between blind and partially sighted respondents, professional and recreational athletes, team and individual athletes, and athletes who do a sport for people with a vision impairment and athletes who do some other sport. A difference in selfperceived quality of life wasn’t found between men and women, and between athletes and non-athletes with a vision impairment in domain “Reading and accessing information”