Social adjustment and functioning of chronically ill and impaired children and adolescents

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.