title: Social adjustment and functioning of chronically ill and impaired children and adolescents.
abstract: A cluster sample of 532 children aged 8 to 19 years with certain impairments were compared to a matched sample of 316 healthy children of the same age. Almost half (46%) of the impaired had a disability, which was mostly in the domain of body disposition ability (in 88%), behaviour (63%) and situational functioning (54%). In the controls, where 12% had some kind of disability, the corresponding figures were 13%, 11% and 15%. The most disabling conditions were CP (67% handicapped), MBD (52%) and epilepsy (42%). The most frequent non-compensated handicaps were those of occupation (44% of impaired), mobility (31%) and social integration (22%). More than one handicap was associated most frequently with CP (76%) and with epilepsy (36%). Neurological impairments are more disabling and handicapping than non-neurological ones, with the exception of mobility and occupation handicaps in asthmatics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sillanpää
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000175:diagnosis; D002648:Child; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000175:diagnosis; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008297:Male; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors