Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Race differences in a sample of vocational rehabilitation clients with traumatic brain injury
Brick Johnstone1, David Mount, Timothy Gaines
1University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA. johnstoneg@health.missouri.edu
Objective:
To evaluate race differences in demographics, injury severity, and vocational outcomes for persons with TBI.
Participants:
Seventy-five individuals with TBI (13 African American, 62 Caucasian) who requested services from the Missouri Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) over a 2-year period.
Measures:
Demographics (i.e. age, race, level of education), injury severity (i.e. LOC, PTA, length of hospitalization, neuropsychological test scores), VR services provided (e.g. transportation, maintenance, on-the-job training, etc.), and VR outcomes (successfully vs unsuccessfully employed; cost per case).
Procedure:
All participants completed a standard neuropsychological evaluation and completed VR services (i.e. were followed from enrollment to case closure).
Hypotheses:
African Americans and Caucasians would not differ in demographics or injury severity, although fewer African Americans would be successfully employed through DVR.
Analyses:
Chi-squares and non-parametric MANOVAs to evaluate race differences in terms of demographics, injury severity, vocational services provided and vocational outcomes.
Results:
As hypothesized, there were few race differences in demographics or injury severity, although African Americans received significantly more transportation services (62 vs 21%). Contrary to hypotheses, there was no difference in the number of successfully employed African Americans (23%) vs Caucasians (18%).
Conclusions:
African Americans and Caucasians with TBI achieve similar vocational successes if they receive state VR services.
