Citation

Tait RC, Chibnall JT. Spine 2011; 36(17): 1402-1409.

Affiliation

Department of Neurology & Psychiatry, Saint Louis University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181ebacab

PMID

21217454

Abstract

Study Design: Telephone survey and longitudinal analysis of judicial database for cohort of Worker's Compensation claimants in Missouri.Objective: To compare legal difficulties experienced by African American and Caucasian workers' compensation claimants pre-settlement versus post-settlement.Summary of Background Data: Retrospective studies suggest that workers with occupational back injuries experience financial and personal duress following claim settlement. This study examined these issues by comparing financial and domestic court actions for the five years pre-settlement against five years post-settlement. Sociodemographic differences also were examined. Methods: Missouri judicial records were reviewed for African American (n = 580) and non-Hispanic Caucasian (n = 892) workers' compensation claimants to determine the frequency with which four types of cases occurred: general financial, domestic financial, residence financial, and domestic behavior. Average annual level of judicial activity during the five years prior to claim settlement was compared to activity for each of five post-settlement years; significance of change was evaluated with univariate and multivariate repeated measures analyses. Results: Statistically significant (p <.001) post-settlement increases in legal cases were noted for each of the four categories of cases. There were significant interactions between race and time for general financial and domestic financial cases. A significant interaction between age and time occurred for general financial cases. Significant three-way interactions (race x income change x time) emerged for general and domestic financial cases. Conclusions: The results confirm that workers with occupational back injuries, especially African American and younger adults, encounter long-term financial and domestic duress that appears to escalate with each passing year following claim settlement. This pattern suggests that short-term studies under-estimate post-settlement difficulties, particularly among selected demographic cohorts.

Language: en