| Citation: |
Phillips, V.L., Hunsaker, A.E., & Florence, C.S. (2012). Return to work and productive activities following a spinal cord injury: The role of income and insurance.
Spinal Cord, 50
(8),
623-626.
|
| Title: |
Return to work and productive activities following a spinal cord injury: The role of income and insurance |
| Authors: |
Phillips, V.L., Hunsaker, A.E., & Florence, C.S. |
| Year: |
2012 |
|
Journal/Publication:
|
Spinal Cord |
| Publisher: |
International Spinal Cord Society |
| Full text: |
http://www.nature.com/sc/journal/v50/n8/pdf/sc201222a.pdf
|
| Peer-reviewed? |
Yes
|
| NIDILRR-funded? |
No
|
|
Research design:
|
Survey research
|
| Background: |
Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) change the lives of those individuals that live with them and their families. Employment is often negatively impacted and employment rates of SCI survivors are dismal. Employment following SCI has been given significant study but the roles of household income and insurance status on the return to work and productive activities after SCI have not. |
|
Purpose:
|
The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles of income level and health insurance status on return to work and productive activities after SCI. |
|
Study sample: |
The sample consisted of newly injured (n=111) SCI patients at a southeastern rehabilitation hospital in the United States. |
|
Control or comparison condition:
|
Time to return to employment and productive activities were the comparison conditions. |
|
Data collection and analysis:
|
Data was collected from patients upon discharge from the hospital and participants were followed for up to 2 years after discharge. Hazard regression models were used to identify the effects of income levels and health insurance status on the target variables. |
|
Findings:
|
Being on Medicaid significantly decreased the likelihood of returning to productive activities and having a higher median income significantly increased this probability. Being in a higher income percentile significantly decreased the time to returning to employment. |
|
Conclusions:
|
These findings suggest that income and being on Medicaid have roles in post injury productivity. |
