| Abstract [eng] |
As health care service and facilities expand, the lifespan of individuals with spinal cord injuries also increases. Therefore, not only the question of surviving, but the quality of life becomes important. More and more effort has been put into helping the disabled people to reach higher level of wellness and satisfaction within various life domains. Thus first and foremost we should investigate the inner state of individuals with mobility impairments and attitudes towards oneself, others and the world. Such exploration could provide various institutions with valuable information to assist in working with disabled people. It could also contribute to the development of health promoting programmes and overall improvement of the situation of the individuals with mobility impairments in our society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of life, perceived wellness and sense of coherence of individuals with mobility impairments. The subjects were 56 adults with spinal cord injuries and 58 adults without any injuries (18 to 65 age range). Participants completed The Quality of Life-BREF Instrument [WHOQOL-BREF] (WHO, 1998), The Perceived Wellness Survey (Adams, Bezner, Steinhardt, 1997) and the Sense of Coherence Scale [SOC-13] (Antonovsky, 1987). Participants also completed the questionnaire that was designed by the author of this study. This questionnaire was made to gather the demographical data and some information about the disability of participants and difficulties that they face in various life domains. The results revealed that the adults with mobility impairments experience difficulties mainly in such life domains as mobility, education, employment and economic life, while the least troubling domains for them are interaction with other people and communication. The overall estimation of quality of life, perceived health, physical, psychological, social and environmental qualities of life in individuals with mobility impairments were found to be lower than in those without disabilities. Participants with mobility impairments got the highest score on intellectual wellness, while the lowest results were in physical and emotional wellness. The overall score of perceived wellness in individuals with spinal cord injuries was found to be lower than in control group adults. Participants with mobility impairments also had lower result on sense of coherence: their sense of manageability was estimated to be weaker than in control group individuals. It was also demonstrated that there is a positive relationship between all constructs that we have been analyzing in this work, i.e. quality of life, perceived wellness and sense of coherence. |
