Community-based participation of children with and without disabilities.
Stella Arakelyan, Donald Maciver, Robert Rush and 2 others
PMID 31762011WHAT IT FOUND
Children with disabilities were less likely to get together with friends, join physical activities, or attend religious gatherings.
They also took part in several of these activities less often, even after accounting for sex, income, and parental education.
Key findings
01After adjustment for child sex, family income, and parental education, children with disabilities were less likely to get together with friends, take part in unstructured physical activities, take part in organized physical activities, attend religious gatherings, or travel for vacations abroad.
02After adjustment, children with disabilities had higher odds of low-frequency participation in unstructured physical activities (adjusted odds ratio 2.41), organized physical activities (2.29), religious gatherings (2.08), and getting together with friends (3.31).
03In adjusted models, disability was associated with male sex (adjusted odds ratio 1.37), abnormal psychosocial and behavioural problems (8.86), single-parent households (1.37), and parental longstanding illness (2.36).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
This was a cross-sectional secondary analysis, so it can show associations at ages 10 to 12 but cannot show that disability caused lower participation or that lower participation caused disability. Disability was identified by main-carer answers to two questions, not by clinical diagnosis or examination, so children with different conditions were grouped together. Most data came from main carers, 96% mothers, so information or recall bias may affect reports of child behaviour and participation. Participation was measured as attendance at only six selected activities, and the validity of those items is unknown; involvement and enjoyment were not measured. The study did not test any therapy, programme, or policy, so it cannot show that recommendations would improve participation.
Declared interests
Funded by Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as proof that disability causes reduced participation, or that a programme will improve it. The study was cross-sectional, used main-carer reports, and measured only attendance at six activities.