Introduction: Spinal cord injury causes a physical impairment that has a long-term effect on individual's physical and mental health. Due to the loss of motor and sensory abilities an individual can develop a passive life style, which negatively affects physical condition, social inclusion and quality of life. Another consequence of spinal cord injury is the reduced ability to participate in meaningful occupations outside the home, such as working and leisure activities. Many studies showed that dealing with sport has a positive impact on improvement of health, self-image, social inclusion and quality of life for people with spinal cord injury. Purpose: To research wheelchair handball from perspective of an occupation and positive effects of this sport for the individual. To research barriers of engaging in wheelchair handball, that people with spinal cord injury are confronting with. Methods: A qualitative approach was used. A semi-structured interview was conducted with three persons with spinal cord injury, which play wheelchair handball. A qualitative thematic analysis was used. A deductive approach was used in coding, where the concepts of Model of human occupation presented categories and subcategories, in which we then sorted concepts, obtained by the analysis. Results: Four categories were defined, namely volition, habituation, performance capacity and impact of the environment on occupational behaviour, and 16 subcategories, which are personal causation, values, interests, anticipation, occupational choice, experience, interpretation, routines, roles, objective components of performance capacity, subjective approach to performance capacity, spaces, objects, social groups, occupational forms and economic conditions, which form a dynamic interaction and influence the performance of wheelchair handball. Discussion and conclusion: Engaging in sports activities is vital for people with spinal cord injury, as thus they strengthen their physical and psychosocial abilities, which reflects in higher quality of life. Players of wheelchair handball highlighted the low number of people with spinal cord injury, getting involved in the sport. Occupational therapists can also contribute to greater interest in engaging in sports activities by encouraging people with spinal cord injury to participate in sports activities.
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