A lot of factors influence the caregivers' burden. It appears necessary to take into consideration the cultural, religious, and economic distinctiveness of the country in question.
Background: A spinal cord injury (SCI) is a traumatic event that affects every aspect of life: physical, mental, economic, and social. The main aim of this study was to investigate self-efficacy, quality of life, and their correlations among outstanding athletes who have suffered spinal cord injuries, and to determine whether these individuals have specific psychological characteristics that contribute to a better quality of life. Methods: The study involved nine athletes with at least national-level achievements in sports prior to an SCI. Participation in the study consisted of an interview via an online communicator, followed by an online questionnaire consisting of a personal questionnaire and two scales: The World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQoL-BREF), and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). Results: Spearman’s correlation showed a correlation between general self-efficacy, perception of quality of life, and satisfaction with own physical health, as well as psychological resources and environmental support. Conclusions: Involvement in an environment that was important to the injured person before the accident, in either a passive (in the absence of functional capacity) or active form, promotes a greater sense of self-efficacy and good QoL, regardless of the time that has passed since the accident, and despite high levels of pain or secondary health issues. To fill the gap in professional long-term healthcare services for athletes after SCIs, intervention programs should be considered that support self-efficacy, which is an important factor that can be subject to improvement.
A three-times World Champion in BMX (an acronym for Bicycle Motocross) dirt jumps, a Junior World Champion in ski jumping, and a European karate Champion sustained spinal cord injuries at the cervical and thoracic level. Such a severe trauma is tantamount to the end of a professional sporting career. In such a situation, the athlete’s life significantly changes in every aspect of it: health, professional, and social. The greatest sports champions have not yet been portrayed in the context of a strategy they used to deal with an abrupt end of a professional career due to severe injury. A semi-structured interview was conducted with study participants who additionally filled out the WHO Quality of Life Scale. This multiple case series presents the quality of life in elite athletes as well as the social activities they have undertaken regardless of the tragic accident. The results of the research indicate that these people are characterized rather by a positive sense of quality in life, and the way they function in a difficult situation is an inspiration to others.
The quality of life of patients with severe brain damage is compromised by, e.g., impaired cognitive functions and ocular dysfunction. The paper contains research findings regarding participants of an oculomotor training course aimed at the therapy of visual–spatial functions. Five male patients with brain damage who did not communicate, verbally or motorically, participated in the study. Over a six-week period, the subjects solved tasks associated with recognising objects, size perception, colour perception, perception of object structures (letters), perception of object structures (objects), detecting differences between images and assembling image components into the complete image with the use of an eye tracker. The findings present evidence of oculomotor training effectiveness based on a longer duration of the work with the eye tracker and improved visual–spatial functions.
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