@article{ref1,
title="Psychosocial reintegration following traumatic spinal cord injury in South Africa: the influence of employment, injury characteristics and living situation",
journal="Journal of spinal cord medicine",
year="2022",
author="Nizeyimana, Eugene and Phillips, Joliana and Joseph, Conran",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="OBJECTIVES: To determine the influence of employment, injury characteristics and living situation on psychosocial reintegration in individuals who sustained a traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in South Africa. <br><br>DESIGN: A cross-sectional exploratory survey. SETTINGS: Communities of the Cape Metropolitan Area, South Africa. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 108 community- dwelling adults, between ages of 19 and 71 years, who have sustained a TSCI more than 1- year ago. OUTCOME MEASURES: : The Sydney psychosocial reintegration scale (SPRS-2). <br><br>RESULTS: The SPRS-2 and domains mean (SD) scores were: (1) Overall SPRS-2 of 27.87(13.4); (2) Occupational activity of 8.62 (4.8); (3) Interpersonal relationships of 9.80 (5.1); and (4) Living skills of 9.45 (4.9). Multivariate regression analysis resulted in two significant independent variables, namely employment and living situation. Employment alone explained 24.3% of the variance in the overall psychosocial model, 25.6% in the occupational activity model, while employment together with living situation explained 24.2% of the variance in the living skills model, with those employed reporting better psychosocial reintegration and those living in informal dwellings reporting poorer psychosocial reintegration. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Employment and living situation strongly influenced psychosocial reintegration following a TSCI, indicating the important role of socio-economic status for psychosocial adaptation after injury. As employment plays a significant mediating role, and living in informal dwellings negatively affect psychosocial reintegration following a TSCI, rehabilitation stakeholders and policy makers need to continue lobbying for social and political change that support employment opportunities and provide accessible housing for persons with TSCI.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1079-0268",
doi="10.1080/10790268.2021.2016306",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10790268.2021.2016306"
}