Self-perception of Venous Symptoms and Quality of Life Analysis in Wheelchair Athletes and Non-athletes: A Pilot Study

Aims: Evaluate the impact of the physical activity in individuals with muscular atrophy on the inferior members (wheelchair users) considering two main aspects: the quality of life and the self-perception of the venous return symptoms.
Place and Duration of Study: Data of handicapped non athletes were collected from a universitary physiotherapy clinic at the University of Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. Data of the athletes’ sample (basketball players) were obtained from Cava do Bosque, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil, between September 2013 and December 2013.
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study, with a convenience sampling of wheelchair users: non athletes (n=12) and athletes (n=13). A socio-demographic questionnaire was applied. Self-perception of functional performance and of venous symptoms was evaluated by the VEINES-QOL/Sym, and the quality of life was evaluated by the WHOQOL-Bref. The statistical analysis was performed by the Chi-square test for VEINES-QOL/Sym, Student’s t-test for WHOQOL-Bref and Student’s t-test, proportion test and G-test for the socio-demographic questionnaire.
Results: Twenty-three subjects were men (92%). Data of physical conditions, environmental and psychological domains from WHOQOL-bref questionnaire demonstrated no significant differences between the groups. On the other hand, social relations domain had higher values in athletes compared to non athletes (P<.05). Results from VEINES-QOL/Sym questionnaire (the questions 1, 2, 3, 4(a, b, c), 5(b, c), 6, 7 and 8 showed no statistically significance between the groups. Analyzing the 4d (leisure activity) and 5a (time spent for daily activities) questions, higher values were observed for the athletes (P<.05).
Conclusion: Considering the data obtained by WHOQOL/Bref survey, physical exercise improves the quality of life of wheelchair individuals. However, it has not been possible to establish the relationship between physical exercise and the improvement of self-perception on venous symptoms in wheelchair individuals.