Factors That Influence Employment After Spinal Cord Injury in South Korea

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate employment status after spinal cord injury (SCI) and identify personal, family, and injury characteristics those affect their employment in South Korea.MethodsParticipants were 334 community-dwelling persons 20-64 years of age who had sustained SCI for more than one year. Investigators visited each participant's home to carry out the survey. Bivariate and binary logistic regression analyses were performed to identify personal, family, and injury characteristics that influenced employment after SCI.ResultsEmployment rate decreased significantly from 82.5% to 27.5% after SCI. Logistic regression showed that the probability of employment was higher in men than women, and in individuals older than 45 years at the time of injury than those aged 31-45 years of age. Moreover, employment was higher in individuals injured for longer than 20 years than those injured for 1-5 years and in individuals with incomplete tetraplegia than those with complete paraplegia. Employment was lower in individuals with SCI caused by industrial accidents than those injured in non-industrial accidents.ConclusionInjury characteristics are the most important predictors of employment in persons with SCI. For persons with lower employment rate, individualized vocational rehabilitation and employment-support systems are required.

Employment Among People With Spinal Cord Injury in 22 Countries Across the World: Results From the International Spinal Cord Injury Community Survey

“…31 For South Korea, the 28.4% employment rate found in this study is similar to the 27.5% reported in an earlier study. 32 For Japan, in contrast, the 50.5% found in this study is much higher than the 28% employment rate found in a study performed more than 30 years ago, with perhaps different employment profiles and opportunities for people with SCI then. 33 Substantial gaps between the employment rates among the participants with SCI and the general population were found for all countries, even in high-income countries such as Germany and South Korea.…”

Perceived Clinical Barriers to Employment for Males with Spinal Cord Injury in Saudi Arabia

“…Marital status has been observed as a predictor of employment in some studies, [34,[44][45][46]] while in others it did not serve in a predictive manner for employment [47][48][49]. In many cultures, the spouse plays a considerable supportive role in situations that may arise due to health-related problems of family members.…”