Children with and without disabilities in the Nordic countries. A Nordic project.

A socio-pediatric study of children's health and well-being has been carried out, based on questionnaires from 2000 children with long-term illnesses and disabilities and from a representative sample of 10,000 children from the five Nordic countries. The overall results confirm that Nordic children enjoy a high standard of living, and that they are healthy, both physically, mentally and socially. They frequently use the health services but mainly for minor complaints and their hospital stays are short. Disabled children and their families have the same material standard of living and a similar social network as the others. Their leisure time activities, however, are reduced and the children's peer acceptance and self-esteem are lower and they have more psychosomatic symptoms. It is mainly the mothers who have to interrupt their career to take care of the disabled children. Most families, both disabled and others, are quite satisfied with the children's medical care, especially where continuity and specialist services are provided.