Racial Differences in Employment Outcome After Traumatic Brain Injury at 1, 2, and 5 Years Postinjury

Abstract

Gary KW, Arango-Lasprilla JC, Ketchum JM, Kreutzer JS, Copolillo A, Novack TA, Jha A. Racial differences in employment outcome after traumatic brain injury at 1, 2, and 5 years postinjury. Objectives: To examine racial differences in competitive employment outcomes at 1, 2, and 5 years after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to determine whether changes in not competitive employment rates over time differ between blacks and whites with TBI after adjusting for demographic and injury characteristics. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Sixteen TBI Model System Centers. Participants: Blacks (n=615) and whites (n=1407) with moderate to severe TBI. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measure: Employment status dichotomized as competitively employed versus not competitively employed. Results: After adjusting for demographic and injury characteristics, repeated-measures logistic regression indicated that (1) the odds of not being competitively employed were significantly greater for blacks than whites regardless of the follow-up year (all P