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Abstract
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OBJECTIVES: To determine the influence of employment, injury characteristics and living situation on psychosocial reintegration in individuals who sustained a traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in South Africa.
DESIGN: A cross-sectional exploratory survey. SETTINGS: Communities of the Cape Metropolitan Area, South Africa. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 108 community- dwelling adults, between ages of 19 and 71 years, who have sustained a TSCI more than 1- year ago. OUTCOME MEASURES: : The Sydney psychosocial reintegration scale (SPRS-2).
RESULTS: The SPRS-2 and domains mean (SD) scores were: (1) Overall SPRS-2 of 27.87(13.4); (2) Occupational activity of 8.62 (4.8); (3) Interpersonal relationships of 9.80 (5.1); and (4) Living skills of 9.45 (4.9). Multivariate regression analysis resulted in two significant independent variables, namely employment and living situation. Employment alone explained 24.3% of the variance in the overall psychosocial model, 25.6% in the occupational activity model, while employment together with living situation explained 24.2% of the variance in the living skills model, with those employed reporting better psychosocial reintegration and those living in informal dwellings reporting poorer psychosocial reintegration.
CONCLUSION: Employment and living situation strongly influenced psychosocial reintegration following a TSCI, indicating the important role of socio-economic status for psychosocial adaptation after injury. As employment plays a significant mediating role, and living in informal dwellings negatively affect psychosocial reintegration following a TSCI, rehabilitation stakeholders and policy makers need to continue lobbying for social and political change that support employment opportunities and provide accessible housing for persons with TSCI.
Language: en |