Abstracts

Effect of State Vocational Rehabilitation Services on Employment Outcome of People with Epilepsy.

Abstract number : 2.025
Submission category : 12. Health Services
Year : 2011
Submission ID : 14762
Source : www.aesnet.org
Presentation date : 12/2/2011 12:00:00 AM
Published date : Oct 4, 2011, 07:57 AM

Authors :
F. Chan, C. Sung

Rationale: State vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies have been playing a critical role in helping individuals with disabilities to obtain and secure employment. However, state VR services are significantly under-utilized by people with epilepsy. Also, there is limited information on factors affecting VR outcomes of people with epilepsy. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between VR services provided and employment outcomes of people with epilepsy controlling for demographic covariates.Methods: Data was obtained from the RSA-911 database for fiscal year 2009 consisting of 2271 individuals with epilepsy who received services from state VR agencies in the United States. Multivariate logistic regression was used with three sets of predictor variables entered: (a) demographic characteristics, (b) work disincentives, and (c) VR services variables.Results: The model is significant (?2 (36, N = 2275) = 382.30, p < .001) with predictor variables account for 15.5% of the variance in employment outcomes (R2 = 0.155). Of the unemployed individuals with epilepsy who received services, 1107 (48.6%) achieved successful employment, while 1169 (51.4%) were not employed following receipt of VR services. The results show that three individual characteristics were found to be significant predictors of employment (p < .05). They are: being Hispanic/Latino (
Health Services