Participation of children with long-term health conditions compared to that of healthy peers: a cross-sectional comparative study

BACKGROUND: Knowledge is limited on attendance and involvement of perceived participation of children with long-term health conditions.AIMS: To evaluate the perceived participation of children with long-term health conditions and to compare their participation with that of healthy peers.MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional comparative study was designed using self-reported data from 65 children with long-term health conditions and from 65 healthy peers, utilising the simplified Chinese version of Picture My Participation (PMP-C; Simplified).RESULTS: The frequency scores of children with long-term health conditions were significantly lower than those of healthy peers in terms of attendance for the total domain and for 13 activity items. The involvement scores of children with long-term health conditions were significantly lower than those of healthy children in 3 items. There was a strong correlation between rank orders of the most important activities for the two groups (r = 0.83).CONCLUSIONS: Children with long-term health conditions participated less in activities compared to healthy children. Further studies are required to investigate factors of the participation of children.SIGNIFICANCE: The PMP-C (Simplified) offered an opportunity for children to express their own perspectives of participation based on their individual experience of the activity.