The quality of life in Thai senior table tennis players

Objectives

Ethics and consent

This research was ethically approved by the Office of the Committee for Research Ethics (Social Sciences), Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University with the approval number 2023/205.3011. The Committee of Research Ethics (Social Sciences) is in full compliance with International Guidelines of Human Resource Protection such as declaration of Helsinki, The Belmont Report, and CIOMS guidelines. Written consent was obtained from all participants involved in this study. They were clearly instructed about the project and informed that the collected data would be used for publishing the findings. Participants were also given the opportunity to withdraw from the study at any time. However, none of the participants chose to withdraw and they continued until the completion of the study.

Participants

The participants were all Table tennis players (136 Table tennis players) those who registered for attending in the Thailand Master Table tennis Championships 2024 which hosted in January 2024 at Chiang Mai, Thailand. The three experienced researchers have been trained and practiced for the data collection protocol to ensure the research process quality. All the participants were collected the data before the competition began. Each participant spent about 30 minutes for completing the questionnaire (To-aj, Oam et al., 2024). All the participants were closely assisted by the research assistants regarding to the questionnaire explanation. All questionnaires have been proved by the researchers to confirm all items were answered.

Instrument

The questionnaire based on the measurement quality of life, WHOQOL which consisted of 4 dimensions: Physical Health, Psychological Health, Social Relationship, and Environmental Health. The instrument was measured using the five-items of the WHOQOL measured on a five-point Likert scale.

Analysis

Descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation by using SPSS version 22 (https://www.ibm.com/spss).

Assessment of the senior Table tennis players’ quality of life in Thailand

The demographic characteristics of the results revealed that the majority of respondents were male (61.03%), indicating potential gender bias that should be taken into account in the interpretation of the results. The average age of the participants was 51.56 years (range: 40-76 years), with 77.94% in the 40-59 years old range, indicating a focus on moderate-to-high adults who are likely to have a stable careers and education-related life experiences. A large number of respondents have a bachelor’s degree (58.82%), which emphasizes a relatively high level of education that may affect their outlook. Notably, 87.50% reported no history of illness, indicating a relatively healthy sample, which may limit the ability to apply the results to populations with diverse health characteristics. These details were further presented in Table 1.

The study used the Thai version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire to assess participants’ quality of life, with the average scores in each area as follows: the score for physical, mental health, social relationships, and environmental health were 26.35, 23.58, 11.01, and 29.32 respectively. In terms of social relationships, the average score was lowest compared to the other three areas. Environmental health has the highest average score. The overall score is higher than the score in all aspects. Details were presented in Table 2.

The association of with characteristic with quality of life in overall domains

When considering the physical health dimension, it was found to be correlated with the psychological health dimension at a statistically significant level of 0.01. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was 0.704, indicating a high level of correlation, and they were a direct variation. When considering the social relationship dimension, it was found to be correlated with the environmental health dimension at a statistically significant level of 0.01. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was 0.708, indicating a high level of correlation, and they were also a direct variation. They were displayed in Table 3.

When considering the individual factors, the respondents working in private sector needed to be focused on. The study revealed that this group of respondents tend to have higher quality of life levels in the psychological health dimension, ranging from moderate to high, compared to other occupational groups with statistical significance (p <0.001***). The study also revealed that the respondents working in private sector tend to have a moderate level of quality of life in the social relationship dimension compared to other occupational groups. On the other hand, civil servants have a higher level of quality of life in the social relationship dimension compared to other occupational groups with statistical significance (p < 0.023*). Moreover, the same group tend to have a moderate and high level of quality of life in the social relationship dimension compared to other occupational groups with statistical significance (p < 0.038*). All details were demonstrated in Table 4.

Table 4 showed the overall mean scores for male and female. Mean score for female was 3.746 and mean score for male was 3.677. The difference of those mean scores were 0.069 (3.746 – 3.677 = 0.069). Females had a higher mean (0.069) than males. The mean (0.052) for the 59 or underage group was higher than the 60 or over age group. The master’s degree or over education group (0.169) had a higher mean than both the Secondary school or under group and the Vocational Degree/Bachelor Degree group (0.469). Business owners and others (0.087) had a higher mean than farmers/civil servants (0.172) and company employees/state enterprise employees. Those with no illness (0.157) had a higher mean than those with illness.

When determining the association of the characteristic with quality of life in overall domain, it found that there was only one of the five variables studied had a significant association with overall quality of life (p-value <0.05). The quality of life in overall was associated with career’s variable p-value at 0.038. All details were demonstrated in Table 5.

The study found a correlation between demographic variables and the dimension of quality of life among Thai senior table tennis players. Differences in quality-of-life scores were found in relation to the age, gender, and experience of table tennis of participants. These differences appear in physical health. Mental health, social relationships, and environmental health, which were measured by the Thai version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire.

Assessment of the senior Table tennis players’ quality of life in Thailand which was as follows

The study found that the most of them were self-employed. It is in line of Groessl et al. Results found that the average cost/participant was $1134 and $175 for the physical activity (PA) (Groessl et al., 2009).

Our analysis using the WHOQOL-BREF Thai version revealed the environmental health dimension had the highest average score (29.32) among the four quality of life dimensions. This aligns with Jolanki (2021) on senior housing fulfilling its promise of providing accessible physical and social environments. These environments encourage residents to be independent, physically active, and participate in social activities, ultimately promoting well-being and healthy aging. Similarly, Stenner et al. (2019) highlighted the continued importance of physical activity for some older adults, potentially contributing to improved health and well-being. It’s important to acknowledge risk factors as well. Seangpraw et al. (2020) identified factors like alcohol consumption and illness as significant stressors for the rural Thai elderly population.

The association of the quality-of-life domains and its players characteristics which was as follows

Our analysis revealed a statistically significant correlation (p < 0.01) between the social relationship and environmental health dimensions. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) of 0.708 displayed a strong positive correlation, suggesting that these dimensions directly vary together. This finding aligns with research by Jia et al. (2023) who identified a significant correlation between living arrangements, preferred living arrangements, and depression in older adults. Similarly, Pei et al. (2022) demonstrated that living arrangements play a crucial role in indirectly predicting depression through social support. Furthermore, Chen (2019) found that preferred living arrangements reflect needs, cultural norms, and current experiences. Their results support the hypothesis that concordance between preferred and actual living arrangements improves subjective well-being (SWB) in older parents, including reducing depressive symptoms and enhancing happiness.

The study examined the individual factors and found that the respondents working in the business owner/other tended to have higher quality of life scores in the psychological health aligns with research by Dirzyte and Patapas (2022) who found that employees in private sector reported greater support, dignity, forgiveness, care, and positive practices, along with higher optimism scores, compared to public sector employees.

Our finding found that the quality of life in overall was associated with career’s variable. This finding aligns with research by Riva et al. (2022) studied how the job quality was able to impact a person’s overall well-being. This research used a measure called CASP-12 as the research intervention. The findings showed that people with better jobs tended to have higher well-being scores. Similarly, Green et al. (2024) had a similar finding which suggested that the job quality was the important for well-being as physical health.

The results of the study on the quality of life of senior table tennis players in Thailand are quite significant. The findings revealed that there is a strong correlation between playing table tennis at the tournament level and improvements in the quality of life across all domains. This suggests that participating in table tennis has a positive impact on the physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environmental health of senior players. These results are in line with previous research that has demonstrated the positive effects of sports participation, particularly in terms of physical and psychological well-being. The study also highlights the unique advantages of table tennis as a sport for individuals of all ages, especially seniors. Table tennis not only offers physical benefits but also provides a social and accessible platform for individuals to engage in physical activity. The findings from this study contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting the positive relationship between sports participation and quality of life. It also emphasizes the importance of promoting sports like table tennis to enhance the well-being of senior individuals. Further research in this area could explore the specific mechanisms through which table tennis contributes to the overall quality of life of senior players, as well as the potential implications for developing targeted interventions to promote healthy aging through sports participation. The reason for selecting this sub-population was this tournament is one of the biggest table tennis tournaments in Thailand where participants came from all around the world. The absence of a control group in the study limits the ability to draw definitive conclusions about the causal relationship between playing table tennis and improvements in quality of life, as suggested in the authors’ conclusion. While the significant correlations found between playing table tennis at the tournament level and the quality of life in all domains are noteworthy, future research should consider incorporating control groups and longitudinal designs to establish a more robust understanding of the potential impact of table tennis participation on the quality of life of senior players. Additionally, qualitative research methods could be employed to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and perspectives of senior table tennis players, providing a more comprehensive view of the potential effects of the sport on their quality of life. This study was a cross-sectional survey of quality of life of this sub-population. This objective of this study was not to compare the quality of life between the participants and general population. However, the result showed the comparison between domains of QoL and individual factors. Therefore, the methodology was not designed for having the control group.

In future research, it would be valuable to incorporate a comparative analysis of the quality-of-life measures for senior table tennis players with those of the general Thai senior population to provide important context for understanding the specific impact of table tennis participation on the well-being of senior players. While this comparison was not conducted in the present study, it represents a promising avenue for further investigation, offering insights into the potential benefits associated with engaging in table tennis at the tournament level and contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the quality of life of senior individuals in Thailand.