The influence of secondary conditions on job acquisition and retention in adults with spinal cord injury

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Study examined the associations of job acquisition and job retention to health status as represented by secondary conditions, hospitalizations, and nursing home stays for adults with spinal cord injury (SCI). Two samples of adults participating in the SCI Model Systems were recruited for the study. The first sample consisted of 9,501 participants who reported being unemployed at follow-up; the second sample consisted of 5,150 participants who reported working at follow-up. The outcome variables were job acquisition (change from not working at 1 anniversary of injury to working at the following data collection) and job retention (maintenance of work between 2 assessment periods).Discrete time hazard modeling was used to assess how secondary conditions affect job acquisition. After controlling for the effects of demographic and injury characteristics, hospitalizations within the last 12 months were associated with decreased chance of having obtained employment. Hierarchic logistic regression analyses were used to examine job retention. Hospitalizations and the presence of pressure ulcers were associated with lower odds of job retention once demographic and injury characteristics were controlled. Secondary conditions from the previous assessment period were not significantly related to either job acquisition or job retention after the variance from demographic and injury characteristics and current secondary conditions were controlled.

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