Geert Van Hove

BACKGROUND: Children with disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa depend for a large part of their functioning on their parent or caregiver. This study explores parental stress and support of parents of children with spina bifida in Uganda.

OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to explore perceived stress and support of parents of children with spina bifida living in Uganda and the factors that influence them.

METHODS: A total of 134 parents were interviewed. Focus group discussions were held with four ...

It is suggested that participation should be achieved at the end of the rehabilitation process. However, there is a lack of consensus on the definition, the conceptualization and the measurement of participation. This study aims to add to the existing body of knowledge of participation by exploring the 'person perceived participation' in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). On the basis of the 'grounded theory' approach, in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 ...

INTRODUCTION: The intake of folic acid before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy can prevent spina bifida. This paper describes folic acid intake in women in Gulu district in northern Uganda.

METHODS: Structured interviews were held with 394 women attending antenatal care (ANC), 15 mothers of children with spina bifida, and 35 health workers in 2012 and 2013. SPSS16 was used for data analysis.

RESULTS: 1/4 mothers of children with spina bifida took folic acid during ...

This article describes the findings of a qualitative study on knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and practices towards children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus in four regions of Uganda. Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were held with parents of children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, policy-makers, and service providers. Our findings describe how negative knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and practices create barriers to treatment and inclusion of children with ...

BACKGROUND: Despite progress in the process of deinstitutionalisation, very little is known about the health conditions of people with intellectual disability (PWID) who live in large institutions and PWID living in small residential services, family homes or independent living within the community. Furthermore, there are no international comparison studies at European level of the health status and health risk factors of PWID living in fully staffed residential services with formal ...

BACKGROUND: Studies from the UK have shown that children with Down syndrome acquire more academic skills in regular education. Does this likewise hold true for the Dutch situation, even after the effect of selective placement has been taken into account?

METHOD: In 2006, an extensive questionnaire was sent to 160 parents of (specially and regularly placed) children with Down syndrome (born 1993-2000) in primary education in the Netherlands with a response rate of 76%. Questions were ...

BACKGROUND: Despite various reliability studies on the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS), to date there has not been an evaluation of the reliability of client vs. staff judgments. Such determination is important, given the increasing consumer-driven approach to services. Additionally, there has not been an evaluation of the instrument's construct validity on a non-English speaking sample. This is important as the SIS is currently translated into 13 languages.

METHOD: Data were collected in ...

BACKGROUND: The Netherlands are lacking reliable national empirical data in relation to the development of birth prevalence of Down syndrome. Our study aims at assessing valid national live birth prevalence rates for the period 1986-2007.

METHOD: On the basis of the annual child/adult ratio of Down syndrome diagnoses in five out of the eight Dutch cytogenetic centres, the national annual figures of the National Cytogenetic Network on total numbers of postnatal Down syndrome diagnoses ...

BACKGROUND: This article reports on the results of a study conducted in Belgium on family quality of life situated within a larger project focusing on the development of support strategies for young and adolescent siblings of persons with intellectual disabilities. The objectives of this article are twofold: (1) to present the results of the measures contained in the nine domains of the Family Quality of Life Survey-2006 (FQOLS-2006) from the perspective of parents (quantitative ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, discriminant validity and responsiveness of the Ghent Participation Scale.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study with a test-retest sample.

SETTING: Six outpatient rehabilitation centres in Belgium.

SUBJECTS: A total of 365 outpatients from eight diagnostic groups.

MEASURES: The Ghent Participation Scale, the Impact on Participation and Autonomy, the Utrecht Scale for Evaluation of ...

Quality of life scores obtained from self-reports might not be the same as those obtained from a family member or direct support staff. The purpose of the two studies reported in this article was to evaluate further the impact on quality of life scores of self-report vs. proxy ratings. The Personal Outcomes Scale was administered to persons with an intellectual disability. The self-report version, as well as the direct observation version, was administered. In the use of the direct ...

OBJECTIVES: To study health inequalities in persons with intellectual disabilities, representative and unbiased samples are needed. Little is known about sample recruitment in this vulnerable group. This study aimed to determine differences in ethical procedures and sample recruitment in a multicenter research on health of persons with intellectual disabilities. Study questions regarded the practical sampling procedure, how ethical consent was obtained in each country, and which person ...

Abstract  The European Commission's Health Monitoring Programme culminated in the development of a set of European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) for the general population. Despite evidence of marked disparities between the health of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and their peers in the general population, the ECHI contain no significant reference to people with ID. To address this deficit, a two-year grant from the Health Monitoring Programme was awarded to the Pomona ...

To understand the impact of the COVID-19 public health response on families of children with disabilities in Central Uganda we conducted phone interviews with parents and children during the first 5 months of the outbreak (March - July 2020). Most parents and children were well informed about COVID-19 and were keen to adhere to government prevention measures. The majority said lock-down measures had a negative effect on their mental and physical health, social life, finances, education ...

Background  The Netherlands are lacking reliable empirical data in relation to the development of birth and population prevalence of Down syndrome. For the UK and Ireland there are more historical empirical data available. A theory-based model is developed for predicting Down syndrome prevalence in the Netherlands from the 1950s onwards. It is likewise applied to Ireland and the UK for the purpose of validation. Furthermore, a prediction to 2050 is constructed. Materials and Methods  ...