Tan Seok Hong
Postgraduate Unit, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Health Soc Care Community. 2017 Mar;25(2):447-457. doi: 10.1111/hsc.12325. Epub 2016 Feb 1.
Disability in a child not only affects the child but also presents socioeconomic and psychological impacts to the child's family. This study aims to describe the service needs of caregivers of children with disabilities in the state of Penang, Malaysia, and to determine the child and family characteristics predisposing to having more caregiver needs. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between February and June 2013 among caregivers of children aged 0-12 years with disabilities registered with the Penang Department of Social Welfare. Caregivers completed a self-administered mailed questionnaire containing a 20-item Caregiver Needs Scale (CNS). Each item in the CNS was rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'help not at all needed' to 'help extremely needed'. A total of 273 surveys were available for analysis (response rate 34.0%). The CNS contained four domains. The 'Help getting Information and Services for child' domain had the highest mean score (3.61, 95% CI: 3.46, 3.77) followed by 'Help with Finances' (3.29, 95% CI: 3.13, 3.45) and 'Help Coping with child' (3.11, 95% CI: 2.97, 3.25), while the 'Help getting Childcare' domain had the lowest mean score (2.30, 95% CI: 2.13, 2.47). Multivariate regression analysis identified caregivers of younger children and with more severe disability as having more caregiver needs in all domains. Besides that, caregivers of children with learning disability needed more help getting information and help with coping. Caregivers of children with learning and multiple disabilities needed more help getting childcare compared to children with other disability. Caregivers of Indian ethnicity, who had less than a tertiary education and who themselves had medical problems needed more help with finances. The findings on caregiver needs in this study can help inform planning of family support services for children with disabilities in Penang, Malaysia.
儿童残疾不仅影响儿童自身，还会对其家庭产生社会经济和心理影响。本研究旨在描述马来西亚槟城残疾儿童照料者的服务需求，并确定导致更多照料者需求的儿童及家庭特征。2013年2月至6月间，对在槟城社会福利部登记的0至12岁残疾儿童的照料者进行了一项横断面调查。照料者完成了一份包含20项照料者需求量表（CNS）的自填邮寄问卷。CNS中的每个项目按5点李克特量表评分，范围从“完全不需要帮助”到“极其需要帮助”。共有273份调查问卷可供分析（回复率34.0%）。CNS包含四个领域。“为儿童获取信息和服务的帮助”领域的平均得分最高（3.61，95%置信区间：3.46，3.77），其次是“财务帮助”（3.29，95%置信区间：3.13，3.45）和“应对儿童问题的帮助”（3.11，95%置信区间：2.97，3.25），而“获得儿童照料的帮助”领域的平均得分最低（2.30，95%置信区间：2.13，2.47）。多变量回归分析确定，年幼儿童和残疾程度更严重的儿童的照料者在所有领域都有更多的照料者需求。除此之外，学习障碍儿童的照料者在获取信息和应对方面需要更多帮助。与其他残疾儿童相比，有学习和多重残疾儿童的照料者在获得儿童照料方面需要更多帮助。印度族裔、未受过高等教育且自身有医疗问题的照料者在财务方面需要更多帮助。本研究中关于照料者需求的结果有助于为马来西亚槟城残疾儿童的家庭支持服务规划提供参考。
