Home participation of children with and without cerebral palsy in Serbia: an exploratory study

Purpose: This cross-sectional study explored home participation of children with and without cerebral palsy aged 7-18 years and the effect of the environment on this participation.Method: A convenience sample of 110 children with cerebral palsy (55% males; mean age 12.7 years) and 134 children without cerebral palsy (49% males; mean age 12.0 years) was included. Parents completed the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth. Mann-Whitney U-test, χ² tests and radar plots were used to analyze item-level differences between two groups. Participation of children with cerebral palsy was analyzed subsequently in relation to their functional limitations using the Spearman's rank correlation.Results: Children with cerebral palsy participated in home activities less than children without cerebral palsy did, as perceived by their parents. The least differences were observed in activities that typically did not require much physical engagement. Number of activities done at home and the involvement level mostly correlated with fine manual and intellectual functioning. Barriers included physical layout, factors related to the activity (physical and cognitive demands), and limited resources (services, information, money).Conclusions: It is important to understand the uniqueness of each home environment in order to enhance participation of children with cerebral palsy in home setting.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONThe child's relationships with family members, social demands of activities and attitudes and actions of others, as supportive factors, should be considered by professionals to facilitate home participation.There is the need to develop strategies to facilitate children's independence in order to optimize participation outcomes in home-based activities.Differences identified in this study may assist professionals in the design of a context that improves home participation of children with cerebral palsy.