Psychological well-being and quality of life in visually impaired baseball players: An Italian national survey

Abstract

Italian baseball played by visually impaired and blind athletes is an adapted team sport which maintains the peculiar fast-moving features of this popular sport. It is also a mixed team game played together with sighted subjects. Here, we performed a national survey aimed at assessing the differences in psychological well-being (PWB) and quality of life (QoL) between visually impaired baseball players from Italian teams and non-players using a structured online questionnaire. Forty-three visually impaired baseball players and thirty-four visually impaired sedentary individuals completed a structured self-report survey including the validated 18-item Italian versions of the PWB (PWB-18) scale and the Short Form-12 (SF-12) questionnaire to assess the QoL. PWB-18 and SF-12 reference data from the Italian normally sighted population were also employed for comparison with the visually impaired baseball player group. Visually impaired baseball players reported better scores in all dimensions of the PWB-18 scale and significant higher scores in both physical and mental QoL evaluated by SF-12 than the non-player group. In addition, PWB-18 scale findings revealed significant differences between visually impaired baseball players and the reference normally sighted population consisting in lower scores for autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relations with others and purpose in life dimensions. Conversely, the mean scores for PWB-18 personal growth and self-acceptance dimensions were not significantly different between the two groups. The SF-12 questionnaire results demonstrated a significantly higher physical score in visually impaired players compared with the reference population. Instead, the SF-12 mental score of visually impaired athletes tended to be lower, though this difference was not statistically significant. Collectively, our findings suggest that the practice of Italian baseball may have a positive impact on PWB and QoL of visually impaired individuals.

Tailored Sailing Experience to Reduce Psychological Distress and Improve the Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Survivors: A Survey-Based Pilot Study

“…However, this may be consistent with the current concept of personalized medicine [34]. Indeed, the present experience might represent a useful working model for future tailored psychophysical rehabilitation interventions for BC survivors based on personal exercise preferences, likely favoring a better long-term exercise adherence as reported in other contexts [7,35,36]. A further limitation of our study is that we cannot fully attribute the results to the specific sailing experience owing to the lack of a control group for comparison.…”

“…We obviously recognize that this preliminary investigation has some intrinsic limitations, such as the relatively small BC survivor sample size and the study design exclusively based on self-report assessments. Nevertheless, it should also be considered that health psychology research studies are mainly based on data collected through questionnaires or surveys [7,32]. According to the relevant guidelines [33], we have described herein a pathway developed by an expert panel of practitioners and researchers in the field of exercise and rehabilitation in oncology to support the transition of BC survivors from health care to physical/sporting activities.…”

“…The online survey questionnaire was created in the Italian language using the Google Forms platform [7] and was sent by e-mail to the participants (all Italian native speakers) in order to provide direct access to the online questionnaire. All participants were fluent in Italian.…”

“…It is well known that physical and mental health, social functioning and emotional well-being and, consequently, a better QoL may be derived from the practice of physical activity and/or sports [6]. In particular, there is evidence that participation in team sports rather than individual activities may be associated with better health outcomes, due to the social nature of the participation [7,8]. At present, research exploring the relationship between the team-based physical/sporting activities and the QoL of BC survivors is limited to dragon boat racing [9,10].…”

Клініко-Психопатологічні Особливості Пацієнтів З Травматичним Ушкодженням Органа Зору

“…Значне погіршення зору є тяжким психоемоційним стресом, воно супроводжується не лише змінами у психоемоційному стані, а й серйозно впливає на порушення взаємодії індивіда з мікросоціальним оточенням та суспільством. Наслідками погіршення зору є гострі стресові реакції, формування аграваційно-рентних установок і розвиток непсихотичних психічних розладів [5,6]. Особливо тяжкими ці несприятливі зміни є при раптовій втраті або раптовому значному погіршенні зору, що викликає значні порушення психічного функціонування [7].…”