Table 1.

Distribution of Paid Employment for Physically Disabled Adults by Individual-Level Health, Background and Socioeconomic Characteristics [Percent or Mean (SD)]

	Total N = 1,013	Employed N = 205	Not employed N = 808
Injury & Health characteristics
Injury type (%)
Paraplegia	53.2	61.0	51.2
Tetraplegia	46.8	39.0	48.8*
Age at injury (%)
≤ 25 years	42.1	57.1	38.2
26 – 35 years	26.8	19.5	28.7
36 – 45 years	17.4	13.2	18.4
≥ 46 years	13.7	10.2	14.6***
Injury duration (%)
< 2 years	25.0	13.7	27.8
2 – 10 years	37.7	43.4	36.3
11 – 15 years	12.2	12.7	12.1
≥ 16 years	24.1	30.2	23.8***
Physical Functioning [Mean (SD)]
FIM score	5.0 (1.8)	5.7 (1.4)	4.9 (1.8)***
Self-rated poor health (%)
No	71.6	87.3	67.6
Yes	28.4	12.7	32.4***
Rehospitalized in past year (%)
No	70.9	82.0	68.1
Yes	29.1	18.0	31.9***
Background characteristics
Gender (%)
Male	80.9	80.5	80.9
Female	19.1	19.5	19.1
Race/ethnicity (%)
Non-Hispanic White	60.8	75.6	57.1
African American	35.1	22.0	38.5
Hispanic	3.1	1.9	3.3
Asian/Pacific Islander/Other	1.0	0.5	1.1***
Marital Status (%)
Single	42.2	33.7	44.6
Married	31.0	45.4	27.3
Divorced/Separated/Widowed	26.8	21.9	28.1***
Current age (years)	41.2 (11.7)	39.8 (10.2)	41.6(12.0)*
Socioeconomic characteristics
Paid employment pre-injury (%)
No	36.6	35.6	36.8
Yes	63.4	64.4	63.2
Education level (%)
Less than 12 years	21.3	5.4	25.3
High school graduate/GED	50.7	41.4	53.0
Some college or more	28.0	53.2	21.7***

^*p < 0.05;

^**p < 0.01;

^***p < 0.001

Note: Bivariate analyses based on χ² tests of significance or t-tests.