Sports for persons with spinal cord injuries

Spinal cord injury (SCI) brings along substantial losses within the area of independence and quality of life for the affected individual. Physical exercise and sport represent an important therapeutic part of successful mobility advancements. Aiming to point out the possibilities and effects of physical activity in individuals with SCI and to motivate them to participate in sports in the long term, available data collection (N = 320) examined by questionnaire which factors decide whether a person is involved in sports or not. The results show that age (p ≤ .001), vocational situation (p = .003) and leisure behavior (p ≤ .001) effect the involvement in physical exercise. The distance to appropriate sports programs is indicated as most frequent reason of inactivity and leads to the conclusion that the creation of sufficient individual sports programs within spitting distance is urgently necessary regarding the lifelong aftercare.