Survey Finds Happiness Common in Teens Born With Severe Disabilities
From Times staff and wire reports
Researchers report that the surprising level of happiness found among teenagers who have severe disabilities caused by being born prematurely is an argument for providing care to low-birth-weight babies.
In a survey of 141 adolescents who survived premature births, albeit with severe disabilities, 71% described their health as near-perfect compared to 73% in a control group of normal teenagers.
“It is heartening that adolescents with disabilities have developed coping mechanisms,” author Saroj Saigal of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, wrote in the Aug. 14 Journal of the American Medical Assn.
The disabilities included cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, autism, blindness, deafness and various neurosensory and cognitive impairments.
