Disability and poverty

Abstract

Different research studies indicated that families of children with disabilities experienced significantly greater material hardship than did other families. Poverty is not a direct cause in the etiology of disability, but it constitutes a set of serious risk factors such as: poor prenatal care, prematurity, low birth weight, poor nutrition in pregnancy and infancy, vulnerability to environmental risk factors etc. On the other hand, disability itself has negative influence on socio-economic status of the family, due to additional financial burdens connected with increased therapy costs, specialized day care and adapting the home environment. In addition, single-mother families who take care for a child with any kind of disability are at increase risk for experiencing poverty. It was found that poverty had negative influence on quality of life in families of children with disabilities.

Rezultati različitih istraživačkih projekata pokazuju da su porodice ometene dece značajno siromašnije od porodica tipične dece. Siromaštvo nema direktnu ulogu u etiologiji ometenosti, ali deluje na pojavu ometenosti putem čitavog seta riziko faktora kao što su: loša prenatalna zaštita, prematuritet, niska porođajna masa, malnutricija u trudnoći i ranom postnatalnom periodu, pojačana osetljivost prema sredinskim faktorima rizika itd. S druge strane, ometenost ima negativan uticaj na socioekonomski status porodice zbog dodatnih troškova vezanih za sprovođenje terapijskih procedura, specijalizovanu brigu u dnevnim centrima i adaptiranje prostora za stanovanje. Osim toga, samohrane majke koje često brinu o ometenom detetu, izloženije su povećanom riziku za pojavu siromaštva. Takođe je utvrđeno da siromaštvo ima negativan uticaj na kvalitet života porodice sa ometenim detetom.