title: How the number of years of sports experience and the frequency of sports activities can influence the quality of life of people with challenges.
abstract: The present study focused on the users of sports centres for people with challenges to identify the relationship between sports activities and quality of life (QOL) of the users. A centre established in H Prefecture in 1996 (Centre H) and another in T Prefecture in 2006 (Centre T) were studied to find out how differences in the number of years of sports experience and frequency of sports activities could affect QOL scores of the 36-Item Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). The examination of the relationship between the number of years of sports experience and the total QOL scores of the respondents at both centres revealed significantly better QOL scores on the bodily pain (BP) and role emotional (RE) scales among the respondents with three or more years of sports experience, compared to those with less than three years of sports experience. On the whole, the higher the number of years of sports experience and the greater the frequency of sports activities, the better the QOL scores were. These results suggest that sports activities contribute greatly to the improvement of the everyday QOL of challenged individuals and long years of frequent sports activities have a beneficial impact on the QOL of physically-challenged individuals.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-7-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521, Japan. d062154@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakashima
authors.forename: Yumiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miki
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miki
authors.forename: Hongli
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamasaki
mesh_terms: D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006293:Health Promotion; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008603:Mental Health; D010146:Pain / Q000517:prevention & control; D011788:Quality of Life; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013177:Sports; D013997:Time Factors