Abstract
Two research questions are addressed: 1) What predicts employment among persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Norway? 2) How do the employed compare with the non-employed in their job motivation, labour discrimination, quality of life, everyday coping, health and pain suffering? We use a cross-sectional survey from 2012. With a 51% response rate, 320 Norwegians aged 21–66 years with SCI participated. After injury, 69.5% were employed, and 44.5% remained employed at the time of the interview. There was no gender difference in employment. Among men and women, age at onset of SCI, ability to continue working in the same organisation and education was associated with employment. For men paraplegia and vocational rehabilitation were also significant. Occupational class was non-significant among both men and women. Job motivation and work ability could have affected past employment, and both the employed and non-employed supported the statement that employers discriminate against wheelchair users.
Highlights
People1 with a disability are more often at risk of social exclusion from the labour market
Factors associated with return to employment after spinal cord injury (SCI) In the first regression analysis, we tested which factors were associated with who was employed after rehabilitation, irrespective of whether or not the individual had been employed before the SCI
The most important results for employment after SCI were to have secondary or tertiary education, the possibility to continue working in the same organisation as before SCI, vocational rehabilitation, and age at onset of SCI
Summary
People with a disability are more often at risk of social exclusion from the labour market. This situation is reflected in lower employment rates, an overrepresentation of part-time contracts, and lower income compared with the general population. The standard explanations for why people with SCI are not employed are inability to perform physically, loss of benefits, physical barriers (including inaccessibility of the workplace) (Young 2009; Ottomanelli & Lind 2009; Lidal, Huyhn & Biering-Sørensen 2007), coping strategies, and a lack of motivation and supportive supervisors (Abma, Bültmann, Varekamp & van der Klink 2013)
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