title: Worklife after traumatic spinal cord injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop predictive models to estimate worklife expectancy after spinal cord injury (SCI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Inception cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Model SCI Care Systems throughout the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  20,143 persons enrolled in the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center database since 1973.
  
  
  METHODS
  Not applicable.
  
  
  METHODS
  Postinjury employment rates and worklife expectancy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using logistic regression, we found a greater likelihood of being employed in any given year to be significantly associated with younger age, white race, higher education level, being married, having a nonviolent cause of injury, paraplegia, ASIA D injury, longer time postinjury, being employed at injury and during the previous postinjury year, higher general population employment rate, lower level of Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, and calendar years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The likelihood of postinjury employment varies substantially among persons with SCI. Given favorable patient characteristics, worklife should be considerably higher than previous estimates.
authors.affiliation: Spectrum Economics, Inc, Overland Park, Kansas, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pflaum
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: McCollister
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Shavelle
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: DeVivo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States