• K Ramakrishnan, M Mazlan, P E Julia, and L Abdul Latif.
• Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. drkumaran@um.edu.my
• Spinal Cord. 2011 Aug 1; 49 (8): 924-7.

Study DesignCross-sectional survey.ObjectivesTo investigate factors related to length of time between spinal cord injury (SCI) onset and start of first post-injury employment.SettingPersons living with SCI in the community who are members of a disability support organization.MethodsParticipants were randomly selected from the membership list of a non-governmental voluntary organization. They met the following four criteria: traumatic SCI, minimum of 15 years of age at the time of survey, a minimum of 2 years after SCI and had been employed for some time since SCI. The main outcome measure was time (in years) from injury onset to beginning first post-injury job.ResultsParticipants averaged 4.9 years (s.d. 5.1) from the time of SCI to their first post-injury job, with a range of 3 months to 20 years. Fifty percent of the participants who eventually returned to work had done so by 4 years. Return to pre-injury employer and employment were associated with early return, whereas having less years in education and being older at the time of injury were associated with longer time to return to work.ConclusionRehabilitation team need to consider return to employment as a realistic goal even many years after SCI. Perhaps a focus on returning more people to their pre-injury employer and employment with added focus and input from rehabilitation team for those with lower education status and older age at time of injury might expedite the process of reintegration.

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