Factors influencing employment and quality of life in individuals with spinal cord injury
Keywords:
Spinal cord injury, Return to work, Quality of lifeAbstract
This mixed-methods research aimed at studying employment rates and factors affecting employment among individuals with spinal cord injuries, as well as comparing the quality of life between employed and
unemployed individuals with spinal cord injuries. The study was conducted on 71 individuals who received services at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University from January 2021 to March 2022. Data were collected using personal questionnaires, work status information, the Spinal Cord Independence Measure Version III (SCIM III), and the Quality of Life Basic Data Set (QoL-BDS) questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including the Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, Fisher's exact test, as well as inferential statistics such as logistic regression analysis.
The result found that the majority of participants were male (73.2%), with an average age of 41.70 ± 10.76 years. Of these, 67.6% were employed, with the majority working asmerchant and business owners (33.3%), followed by government employees (25.0%). The study identified that factors influencing employment included the ability to drive, which increased the chance of employment by 8.17 times (p-value = 0.002; 95% CI = 2.19-30.42), and receiving financial support, which reduced the chance of employment by 0.19 times (p-value = 0.007; 95% CI = 0.06-0.63). Furthermore, the study found a statistically significant difference in quality of life between employed and unemployed individuals, with the median scores of the employed group being higher than the unemployed group, indicating that the employed group had a higher level of life satisfaction.
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