People with Spinal cord injury/disease in the labor market: A comparative outlook.

Abstract

The objectives of this paper are to describe the employment of people with spinal cord injury/disease (SCI/D) and identify employment-associated factors among participating countries in InSCI 2024. Cross-sectional, multi-national, observational cohort study. Community setting with participants from 31 countries representing all six WHO regions. A total of 11,170 working-age people with SCI/D were analyzed. Not applicable RESULTS: The majority were males (72.4%), most persons had paraplegia (65.6%), incomplete (57.2%) and traumatic as cause of injury (77.5%). Median age was 45.5 years, median time since injury was 11 years, and median total years of education was 12 years. A third of the respondents were engaged in paid work (33.1%). Participants from Lower Middle-Income countries had 59% lower odds (OR = 0.413, 95% CI [0.363-0.469], p < .001) of employment compared to High Income Countries. Modifiable factors that positively influence employment included education and receiving vocational rehabilitation. A major finding of his study is the difference in employment rates and employment factors for people with an SCI/D in high-income countries vs. low-income countries. While employment can powerfully facilitate wellbeing in this population, it is heavily influenced by broader socio-economic factors which varies across countries. Efforts can be targeted towards addressing education and vocational rehabilitation to improve employment of people post-SCI/D.