Search results for ‘Subject term:"physical disabilities"’ Sort:
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Disability pension among immigrants in Sweden
- Authors:
- OSTERBERG Torun, GUSTAFSSON Bjorn
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 63(3), August 2006, pp.805-816.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Using large samples, disability pensions among foreign-born and native-born women and men living in Sweden is studied here for the period 1981–1999. The results show foreign-born individuals having higher rates of disability pension. The risk of being on disability pension is very low for newly arrived immigrants, but increases rapidly on a yearly basis after immigration. Higher rates of disability pension are reported for persons born in Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey and Finland. Results from multivariate analysis indicate that factors such as education, country of residence and marital status cannot fully explain the high rates of disability pension observed among many immigrant groups. Future research needs to address which possible causes are most important for policies to address.
Associations of motor co-ordination and attention with motor-perceptual development in 3-year-old preterm and full-term children who needed neonatal intensive care
- Authors:
- HEMGREN E., PERSSON K.
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 33(1), January 2007, pp.11-21.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Children who have needed neonatal intensive care (NIC) are considered to be at risk for deficits such as developmental co-ordination disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. By assessing motor-perceptual development, motor co-ordination and attention already at 3 years of age, it might be possible to identify such deficits earlier than they are today. The aim was to investigate the motor-perceptual development in a group of 202 NIC children but had no major impairments, to describe associations of deficits in co-ordination and attention with motor-perceptual delays, and to estimate the prevalence of NIC children with combined deficits together with a motor-perceptual delay. Co-ordination and attention in children born very preterm (n = 57), moderately preterm (n = 75) and full-term (n = 70) were observed according to a model for Combined Assessment of Motor Performance and Behaviour while they were assessed using a developmental scale, Motor-Perceptual Development, 0–7 years, MPU. In two out of 14 MPU areas, a larger proportion of very preterm than of moderately preterm and full-term children had marked developmental delay. Overall, the proportion of NIC children having a motor-perceptual delay increased with increasing incoordination and especially increasing lack of attention. Twenty-one (11%) of the NIC children had different motor-perceptual delays combined with pronounced incoordination and pronounced lack of attention. Deficits in co-ordination and attention were associated with motor-perceptual delays in areas important for daily living and development of academic skills. Therefore, to find children at risk for developmental co-ordination disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, assessments of co-ordination and attention should be added to assessments of motor-perceptual development in 3-year-old NIC children.
Parents of children with physical disabilities – perceived health in parents related to the child's sleep problems and need for attention at night
- Authors:
- MORELIUS E., HEMMINGSSON Helena
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 40(3), 2014, pp.412-418.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Background: Approximately half of all children with moderate to severe physical disabilities have persistent sleep problems and many of these children need parental attention at night. Aim: To study whether sleep problems and need for night-time attention among children with physical disabilities are associated with perceived parental health, headache, psychological exhaustion, pain due to heavy lifting, night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep. Methods: The authors asked parents of 377 children with physical disabilities aged 1–16 years to complete a questionnaire about their own health. The children all lived at home with both parents. Results: Both parents reported poor health, psychological exhaustion, more night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep when the child had sleep problems (P < 0.05). Mothers also reported more headache when the child had sleep problems (P = 0.001). Both parents reported more night-time wakefulness and disrupted sleep when the child needed night-time attention (P < 0.01). In general, mothers reported significantly poorer health, more night-time wakefulness, disrupted sleep, headache and psychological exhaustion than fathers (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Sleep problems need to be acknowledged within the paediatric setting in order to prevent psychological exhaustion and poor health in mothers and fathers of children with physical disabilities. (Edited publisher abstract)
Personal assistance: direct payments or alternative public service: does it matter for the promotion of user control?
- Author:
- ASKHEIM Ole Petter
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 20(3), May 2005, pp.247-260.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Personal assistance organised as direct payments is seen as an important means for securing user control and freeing disabled people from their reliance on welfare professionals and unpaid carers. The hypothesis put forward in the article is that just looking at whether personal assistance is organised as direct payments or as an alternative service represents an overly restricted approach to judge how the user’s preferences are taken care of. By comparing models of personal assistance in the US, the UK, Sweden and Norway it will show that several other factors influence user control. In the final part of the article the question is raised as to whether paternalism is always negative for welfare service users. Since the users constitute a broad group it might be questioned if the assumption of the service users as rational, well informed and competent to make the best choices is always valid.
Occupational therapy targeting physical environmental barriers in buildings with public facilities
- Authors:
- IWARSSON Susanne, et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 67(1), January 2004, pp.29-38.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Evaluates an occupational therapy based intervention aimed at increasing the accessibility to buildings with public facilities in a Swedish town centre, which targeted physical environmental barriers. The intervention was occupational therapy based on the environmental assessments of each facility, given to the facility owners in order to ease the removal of environmental barriers. Another aim was to elucidate the attitudes towards and the practical obstacles to the implementation of accessibility measures among public facility owners. Systematic on-site observations of environmental barriers were administered in five buildings with different facilities, at baseline and at follow-up 18 months later, and were complemented by semi-structured interviews with the facility owners at follow-up. At baseline, environmental barriers were found in all five facilities, such as at entrances, and at follow-up only minor improvements were identified. Two of the facility owners had made use of the occupational therapy advice, but the results also revealed scarce knowledge of or negative attitudes towards accessibility measures. Concludes that active occupational therapy, as described in this study, can influence the situation only to a limited extent.
A Swedish prevalence study of deaf people using sign language: a prerequisite for deaf studies
- Authors:
- WERNGREN-ELGSTROM Monica, DEHLIN Ove, IEARSSON Susanne
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 18(3), May 2003, pp.311-323.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
A widely used estimate claims that one per thousand individuals is deaf, but few recent studies exist on the actual prevalence. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of deaf people, defined as deaf individuals who use sign language as their main mode of communication, in the county of Scania, Sweden. To achieve high validity, data were collected from a large variety of sources including both public institutions and voluntary associations, working with deaf people. The study demonstrates a prevalence of 0.7 per thousand inhabitants, a figure considerably lower than the traditional estimate. One interpretation of this finding is that the prevalence of deafness is on the decrease. Another interpretation reflects the problem to define deafness. As prevalence figures vary with the definition used, one single estimate valid for the prevalence of deafness is not possible to make. We therefore question the traditional one-per-thousand estimate of deafness.
Helping disabled people to work: a cross-national study of social security and employment provisions; a report for the Social Security Advisory Committee
- Authors:
- THORNTON Patricia, SAINSBURY Roy, BARNES Helen
- Publisher:
- Stationery Office/University of York. Social Policy Research Unit
- Publication year:
- 1998
- Pagination:
- 164p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Research paper presenting a comparative study of the employment of disabled people, focusing in particular on the need to be flexible in terms of hours worked and breaks needed. Also looks at the disabling effects of many working environments.
Do public services influence patterns of informal care? Informal networks and public home care in three Swedish municipalities
- Authors:
- JOHANSSON S., HLFEDLT J.
- Journal article citation:
- Scandinavian Journal of Social Welfare, 2(2), April 1993, pp.69-79.
- Publisher:
- Munksgaard/ Blackwell
Whether an individual receives home care services depends on two factors: the functional disability of the care recipient and the caregiver's gender, when the living arrangements of the care recipient are controlled. Report the data from a longitudinal study of social networks and home care organization in three municipalities in Sweden. The results provoke a discussion on research design as well as comments on welfare policy and gender equality in the transformation of the welfare state.
Higher risk of violence exposure in men and women with physical or sensory disabilities results from a public health survey
- Authors:
- OLOFSSON Niclas, LINDQVIST Kent, DANIELSSON Ingela
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(10), 2015, pp.1671-1686.
- Publisher:
- Sage
The World Health Organization has declared that violence is a global public health problem. The prevalence of violence exposure among adults with intellectual and unspecific disabilities has been demonstrated in several studies, whereas only a few articles on people with sensory disabilities have been published. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk for exposure to physical violence, psychological offence, or threats of violence in people with physical and/or sensory disabilities, compared with people with no such disabilities, controlling for socioeconomic data. Data from a public health survey were analysed. A nationally representative sample of women and men aged 16 to 84 years had answered a questionnaire. In the present study, the whole sample, comprised of 25,461 women and 21,545 men, was used. Women with auditory disabilities were generally more often violence exposed than non-disabled women, whereas men with physical disabilities were more often violence exposed than non-impaired men. Some age groups among both women and men with visual disabilities had higher prevalence rates than women and men without disabilities. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were significantly higher among the auditory impairment group for exposure to physical and psychological violence among women. Men with physical disabilities had raised odds ratios for physical violence and psychological violence compared with the non-disabled group. Both men and women with a physical or sensory disability showed higher odds of being exposed to violence than men and women without a disability. The results indicated that socioeconomic situation, smoking, and hazardous drinking strengthened the association between impairment and violence. (Edited publisher abstract)
Students with disabilities participating in mainstream schools: policies that promote and limit teacher and therapist cooperation
- Authors:
- HEMMINGSSON Helena, GUSTAVSSON Anders, TOWNSEND Elizabeth
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 22(4), June 2007, pp.383-398.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This paper examines participatory arrangements for students with physical disabilities in mainstream education, cooperation between teachers and therapists to ensure that these arrangements are efficient and the organizational prerequisites for such cooperation. The study comprises data obtained from 14 'groups' in Sweden, with each group consisting of a student with physical disabilities aged 9-19 years, their main teacher and the relevant therapists from the local habilitation centre. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, field observations and a review of relevant documents, including legislation. The results reveal a lack of cooperation between teacher and therapist which results in students with disabilities receiving suboptimal participatory arrangements in school. Differences in the perspectives of the teachers and therapists and in the way they act and perceive their responsibilities were anchored in institutional and societal documents and the distribution of resources. The implications for students with disabilities are discussed.