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Employment status and barriers to workforce participation among individuals with spinal cord injury: results from the
Belgin Erhan1, Bilinc Dogruoz Karatekin2, Kevser Gumussu3
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Istanbul Medeniyet University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey. dr.belginerhan@gmail.com.
Study Design:
Cross-sectional survey.
Objectives:
To evaluate the employment status, work environment perceptions, and reasons for unemployment among individuals with SCI in Turkey, and to identify factors associated with workforce participation.
Setting:
Community.
Methods:
Data were collected from 357 individuals with SCI using the standardized International Spinal Cord Injury (InSCI) Community Survey. Data on sociodemographic and SCI-related characteristics, employment status, vocational rehabilitation (VR) participation, income satisfaction, and perceived barriers to employment were collected. Group differences between employed and unemployed participants were analyzed.
Results:
The mean age of participants was 44.97 ± 10.92 years, and 71.7% were male. Only 12.9% were currently engaged in paid employment, while 59.5% of unemployed participants expressed a willingness to work. Employment was significantly associated with higher education (p < 0.001), more education received after injury (p < 0.001), longer time since injury (p < 0.001), and participation in VR (p = 0.003). The most common reasons for not working were health condition or disability (67.7%), inability to find a suitable job (20.7%), insufficient transportation services (14.8%), and lack of knowledge about job-seeking strategies (14.5%). Fear of losing disability benefits was reported by 3.6% of participants. Among those employed, 52.3% reported satisfaction with their salary, and 78.3% felt that their contributions were adequately recognized.
Conclusions:
Employment rates among individuals with SCI in Turkey remain critically low, despite many expressing a desire to work. Health-related limitations, environmental barriers, and systemic issues such as transportation and lack of VR services are key factors hindering workforce participation.
