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Predicting change in labour market participation of people with spinal cord injury (SCI): longitudinal evidence from the Swiss SCI community survey

Spinal Cord (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Study design

Longitudinal, population-based survey.

Objective

To examine change in labour market participation (LMP) of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) living in Switzerland and to identify predictors of increase, decrease and stability in LMP between 2012 and 2017.

Setting

Community.

Methods

Longitudinal information on LMP (i.e., weekly workload) was obtained from 311 gainfully employed, working-age individuals who participated in the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI) community survey in 2012 and were still of working age at the time of completing the 2017 questionnaire. Statistical preselection of the predictors of change in LMP was carried out by implementing the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) in a multinomial logistic regression model. The final set of predictors was selected by comparison of several multinomial logistic regression models.

Results

Out of 311 participants, almost half (43%) changed their LMP between 2012 and 2017, 48 increased their weekly workload, 49 reduced and 37 participants left the labour market prematurely. Age at time of the survey, years of education, having children, intention to change weekly workload, high satisfaction with daily routine, extra-time needs for transportation and managing support were associated with change in LMP.

Conclusions

Modifiable factors like education and satisfaction with daily routine should receive particular attention in the context of job retention strategies. More longitudinal research focusing on key employment transitions and trajectories over the life course of persons with SCI is needed to complement, validate and extend our findings.

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Fig. 1: Overview on the study selection and size of our study.

Data availability

Owing to our commitment to SwiSCI study participants and their privacy, datasets generated during the current study are not made publicly available but can be provided by the SwiSCI Study Centre based on reasonable request (contact@swisci.ch).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the SwiSCI Steering Committee with its members Xavier Jordan, Fabienne Reynard (Clinique Romande de Réadaptation, Sion); Michael Baumberger, Hans Peter Gmünder (Swiss Paraplegic Centre, Nottwil); Armin Curt, Martin Schubert (University Clinic Balgrist, Zürich); Margret Hund-Georgiadis, Kerstin Hug (REHAB Basel, Basel); Laurent Prince (Swiss Paraplegic Association, Nottwil); Heidi Hanselmann (Swiss Paraplegic Foundation, Nottwil); Daniel Joggi (Representative of persons with SCI); Nadja Münzel (Parahelp, Nottwil); Mirjam Brach, Gerold Stucki (Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil); Armin Gemperli (SwiSCI Coordination Group at Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil).

Funding

SwiSCI is hosted and funded by Swiss Paraplegic Research. The present study was conducted as part of a PhD thesis and supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grant no. 10531C_173322.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil, Switzerland

    Katarzyna Karcz, Cristina Ehrmann, Monika E. Finger, Urban Schwegler & Bruno Trezzini

  2. Department of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Katarzyna Karcz, Cristina Ehrmann, Monika E. Finger, Urban Schwegler, Anke Scheel-Sailer & Bruno Trezzini

  3. Swiss Paraplegic Centre, Nottwil, Switzerland

    Anke Scheel-Sailer

Authors
  1. Katarzyna Karcz
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  2. Cristina Ehrmann
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  3. Monika E. Finger
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  4. Urban Schwegler
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  5. Anke Scheel-Sailer
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  6. Bruno Trezzini
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Contributions

BT, CE, MEF and KK were responsible for designing the conceptual framework of the study. CE and KK conducted the statistical analysis. KK, CE and BT prepared the manuscript. MEF, US and AS substantially contributed to the data interpretation and the article preparation. AS provided valuable input from vocational integration practice.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katarzyna Karcz.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

Ethical approval for Survey 2012 was approved by the principal ethics committee on research involving humans of the Canton of Lucerne (KEK Luzern, internal application 11042, approved 28.06.2011) and subsequently endorsed by the additional involved cantonal ethics committees of Cantons Basel-Stadt (EK Basel, internal application 306/11, approved 06.09.2011) and Valais (CCVEM Sion, internal application CCVEM042/11, approved 06.12.2011). Ethical approval for Survey 2017 was granted by the leading ethical institution Ethikkommision Nordwest-und Zentralschweiz (EKNZ, Project-ID: 11042 PB_2016–02608, approved Dec 2016). We certify that all applicable institutional and governmental regulations concerning the ethical use of human volunteers were followed during the course of this research.

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Karcz, K., Ehrmann, C., Finger, M.E. et al. Predicting change in labour market participation of people with spinal cord injury (SCI): longitudinal evidence from the Swiss SCI community survey. Spinal Cord (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-022-00809-7

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