Measuring quality of life in studies of disabled children

This review discusses quality of life (QoL), the different ways the phrase has been used and the findings of studies that have measured it in disabled children. Assessment of QoL is important because it gives a voice to children, in accordance with two United Nations conventions. Studies tend to show that QoL of disabled children is similar to that of the general population and that pain and some impairments influence some domains of QoL. There is widespread acceptance of the need for disabled children to be fully integrated into society but there needs to be further attitudinal change. QoL studies tell us that pity and sorrow should not be directed to disabled children as they experience most of life as nondisabled children do. Maximum effort is needed to support social and educational policies that recognize the similarity of the lives of disabled children to those of other children and that ensure their right as citizens, rather than as disabled children, to [0]participate as fully in society as other children.