A therapeutic swimming program to improve life quality of participants with disabilities acquired

Abstract

The population with disabilities resulting from accidents or pathologies has increased in the country; and the rehabilitation periods in public hospitals are not sufficient for most cases. Therefore, at the request of the National Rehabilitation Hospital of Costa Rica, a research was done with the objective to design a therapeutic swimming program to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities acquired. It was applied for a year, twice a week, to a group of nine people with different types of acquired disability, referred by the National Rehabilitation Hospital of Costa Rica, as part of the Physical Activity Program Adapted for people with disabilities from the School of Human Movement Sciences and Quality of Life of the Universidad Nacional of Costa Rica. To collect the information, the Health Questionnaire was applied at the beginning and at the end of the program. It was evidenced that the majority of the subjects show improvements in the perception of the dimensions: "Pain," Vitality "," Social Function" and in the "Mental Health" dimension. Therefore, it can be concluded that the therapeutic swimming program contributed to the improvement of the perception of health and quality of life of participants with an acquired disability.