Quality of Life and Physical Activity of Persons with Spinal Cord Injury.

The higher quality of life of people with spinal cord injury is closely related with their reintegration into the social environment. Social reintegration is a demanding and complex process, requiring individuals to become active again and acquire age-, gender-, and culture-appropriate roles and social status. It also involves independence and productive behavior as part of multiple interpersonal relationships with family, friends, and others. In order to establish whether individuals with spinal cord injury who are physically active subjectively rate their quality of life to be higher compared to those who are not, sixty-two respondents from Slovenia with spinal cord injury were interviewed. Thirty-one of them were physically active, and 31 were not. The level of injury of the responders was from Th6-Th12. The participants gave the highest assessments to their interpersonal relationships, and the lowest to their satisfaction with material prosperity. Data comparison showed that subjective estimates in all areas of quality of life are higher in respondents who were involved in physical activity after their injury. The results may encourage persons with spinal cord injury to participate more often in sports programs, and also encourage others to do so.

Age affects drivers' response times.

In Slovenia the number of drivers over 65 is increasing every year. With age comes a decrease in psychophysical abilities, which include sensory and motoric functions and the ability of processing visual information. These changes increase the response time and decrease the driving capacity. The aim of this study was to establish a correlation between age and response time and to determine the difference in response times between men and women. In the research participated 573 randomly chosen drivers aged 19-80 with a valid driving license. We measured their response times, when stimulated by a red traffic light, on a simulator The results clearly demonstrate that a correlation between age and the response time exists. The results show that a significant increase in response times occurs after the age of 65. In all age groups, except the oldest, women achieved longer response times than men.