Personal and environmental barriers and facilitators to social participation among Canadian adults with mobility disabilities

Abstract

The prevalence of mobility disabilities is increasing in part due to the ageing population. People with mobility disabilities are at an increased risk of reduced social participation and activity limitations and thus reduced well-being. Social participation is important to one’s health and quality of life. The purpose of this secondary data analysis study was to explore factors (personal and environmental) that were most influential to social participation levels among adults aged 20-64 (N = 6105). Statistics Canada’s 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey was used. Data analysis included descriptives of sociodemographics, personal and environmental barriers and facilitators and logistic multinominal univariate and multivariate regression. There was no clear trend as to whether personal or environmental factors were the strongest predictors to social participation. The results of this study suggest a complex interaction between personal and environmental factors that constrain and promote social participation; it provides the foundation for further empirical research to increase activity participation and mobility.