Aspects of the quality of life of chronically ill and handicapped children and adolescents in outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation.

The aim of psychosocial rehabilitation is to reduce handicaps as far as possible. One handicap in chronically ill adolescents is the impairment of quality of life. The quality of life of chronically ill or handicapped adolescents can be defined with a bio-psycho-social model. The connections between adaptivity level, severity of the physical disability and experienced helplessness of young wheelchair users with paraplegia or tetraplegia are demonstrated. Advantages of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation with regard to quality of life are reported.