Physical disability

About: Physical disability is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2607 publications have been published within this topic receiving 85714 citations.

Social Outcomes in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Cohort

Abstract: Difficulties with negotiating and achieving desired social outcomes in life may be exacerbated by the experience of childhood cancer, including adverse effects from therapies used to achieve a cure. This review of previous publications from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) and other relevant literature provides insight into the prevalence of, and risk factors for, poor educational attainment, less than optimal employment status, and interpersonal relationship issues among long-term survivors of childhood cancer. The impacts of emotional health and physical disability on social outcomes are also examined. Study results suggest that childhood cancer survivors generally have similar high school graduation rates, but are more likely to require special education services than sibling comparison groups. Survivors are slightly less likely than expected to attend college, and are more likely to be unemployed and not married as young adults. Cancers and treatments that result in impairment to the CNS, particularly brain tumors, or that impact sensory functioning, such as hearing loss, are associated with greater risk for undesirable social outcomes, as are emotional health problems and physical disability. This review of relevant data from CCSS and other studies provides information on risk factors for social problems into adulthood. A greater understanding of the long-term social impacts from the diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancer is critically important for developing targeted interventions to prevent or ameliorate adverse psychosocial effects.

Handbook of disease burdens and quality of life measures

Abstract: Many diseases and injuries result in the need for either temporary or permanent wheelchair use and research now confirms that multiple dimensions of life are affected when significant disability occurs. These dimensions typically include increases in health concerns and health care burden; loss of >functional independence; reduced participation in social, occupational and recreational opportunities; and subsequent association with psychosocial sequelae. This chapter summarizes current literature on Quality of Life (QoL) in wheelchair-users. The review highlights that a wide range of generic QoL, health-related QoL and disability-specific QoL instruments are used across studies with largely inconsistent findings. There is now a growing movement towards the development of valid and reliable measures for use with people with a range of disabilities. Given the observed challenges of measuring the broad QoL construct in populations of wheelchair-users, more specific aspects of QoL such as levels of stress are now being investigated. It is proposed that these more specific QoL domains may be more accessible to measurement and to therapeutic interventions aiming to improve adjustment to disability. The development of the >Physical Disability Stress Scale (PDSS) is described with recommendations for future clinical and research application. A copy of the PDSS and its scoring instructions are appended.

The MACTAR Patient Preference Disability Questionnaire--an individualized functional priority approach for assessing improvement in physical disability in clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis.

Abstract: A new approach to assessing disability in arthritis that quantifies the functional priorities of the patient is described. Comparison against global improvement suggests that this instrument has the potential to detect small clinically important changes in function.

Social support as a mediator in the relation between functional status and quality of life in older adults.

Abstract: The relations among physical functioning, social support, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction were examined in a national sample of 4,734 adults age 65 and older. Regression analyses were used to examine the relative importance of objective and subjective support measures in understanding the relation between physical impairment and quality of life. Impairment was associated with fewer friendship contacts, fewer family contacts, less perceived belonging support, and less perceived tangible aid, but only measures of perceived support predicted depressive symptomatology. A structural equation modeling approach was then used to explore the mediational role of perceived social support in the relation between impairment and quality of life variables. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that lower reported social support is an important reason for decreases in life satisfaction and increases in depressive symptoms found among older adult populations. Implications for understanding the role of social support in attenuating the effects of physical disability in older adults are discussed.

The Framingham Disability Study: II. Physical disability among the aging.

Abstract: The Framingham Disability Study (FDS), a recent component of the Heart Disease Epidemiological Study in Framingham, Massachusetts, was designed to investigate the nature and magnitude of disability among non-institutionalized elderly. From September 1976 through November 1978, 2,654 individuals aged 55 to 84 years from the original Framingham cohort were interviewed in person or by telephone (94 per cent of the potential participant pool). The findings support the well known relationship between physical disability and age. The magnitude of disability, however, is not as great as conventional wisdom might suggest. This paper presents the physical disability prevalence findings and compares these results to earlier epidemiological investigations of disability in the elderly.