acial Differences in Employment Outcomes After Traumat rain Injury

Objective: To examine racial differences in employment tatus and occupational status 1 year after a traumatic brain njury (TBI). Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Longitudinal dataset of the Traumatic Brain Injury odel Systems national database. Participants: Subjects with primarily moderate to severe BI (3468 whites vs 1791 minorities) hospitalized between 989 and 2005. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Employment status (competiively employed or unemployed) and occupational status (profesional/managerial, skilled, or manual labor) at 1 year postinjury. Results: Race and/or ethnicity has a significant effect on mployment status at 1 year postinjury ( 1 2 58.23, P .001), fter adjusting for preinjury employment status, sex, Disability ating Scale at discharge, marital status, cause of injury, age, nd education. The adjusted odds of being unemployed versus ompetitively employed are 2.17 times (95% confidence interal, 1.78–2.65) greater for minorities than for whites. Race and thnicity does not have a significant effect on occupational tatus at 1 year postinjury. Conclusions: With this empirical evidence supporting racial ifferences in employment outcomes between minorities and hites at 1 year postinjury, priority should be given to tailoring nterventions to maximize minority survivors’ work-related roductivity.