Participation of children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries : a scoping review

Abstract

The available literature exploring the participation in children with disability is biased to high income countries and a paucity is noted for children with disability specifically those living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Furthermore, the definition provides the World Health Organisation of participation and participation related construct but is limited and unclear with regards to the operationalisation and measurement of the construct. Therefore, the current study aims to identify the number of studies that explore participation in children with disabilities in LMICs and describe these studies according to the attendance setting, gender, type of disability of participants, and the settings and geographical distribution of the countries the studies were conducted in. Furthermore, to determine the participation measuring tool used by the included studies, to describe the respondents to participation measures used by included studies; and to describe participation in studies as related to fPRC. Method: A scoping review methodology was used in this study. The six stages from the scoping review framework refined on the Joanna Briggs Institute’s scoping review methodology guided this review. Results: A total of 25 studies met the selection criteria and are included in this review. The results revealed that publications are biased to countries in the higher economic classification within the lower- and middle-income economic classification. The participants of the studies used for the purposes of this research were mostly children with cerebral palsy (CP) and intellectual disability within the school setting. The main focus was on the construct of attendance with the related concepts such as activity competence and sense of self being the constructs least focused on in the included reviews. Most of the studies included do not specify the measuring tool used to collect data but rather a specified method was used to gather data on the participation of children with disabilities living in LMICs. Conclusion: There is growing literature which focuses on exploring participation in children with disabilities living in LMICs.

Key words: Participation, low-middle income countries, children, disabilities, participation measures .