Association between participation in life situations of children with cerebral palsy and their physical, social, and attitudinal environment: a cross-sectional multicenter European study.

Objective: To evaluate how participation of children with cerebral palsy (CP) varied with their environment.

Design: Home visits to children. Administration of Assessment of Life Habits and European Child Environment Questionnaires. Structural equation modeling of putative associations between specific domains of participation and environment, while allowing for severity of child's impairments and pain.

Setting: European regions with population-based registries of children with CP.

Participants: Children (n=1174) aged 8 to 12 years were randomly selected from 8 population-based registries of children with CP in 6 European countries. Of these, 743 (63%) agreed to participate; 1 further region recruited 75 children from multiple sources. Thus, there were 818 children in the study.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measure: Participation in life situations.

Results: For the hypothesized associations, the models confirmed that higher participation was associated with better availability of environmental items. Higher participation in daily activities-mealtimes, health hygiene, personal care, and home life-was significantly associated with a better physical environment at home (P<.01). Mobility was associated with transport and physical environment in the community. Participation in social roles (responsibilities, relationships, recreation) was associated with attitudes of classmates and social support at home. School participation was associated with attitudes of teachers and therapists. Environment explained between 14% and 52% of the variation in participation.

Conclusions: The findings confirmed the social model of disability. The physical, social, and attitudinal environment of disabled children influences their participation in everyday activities and social roles.