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Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Among Spinal Cord Injury Male Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Brief Communication

Background: Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of spinal cord injury (SCI) in Saudi Arabia, mainly involving young adults. Much attention has been dedicated to obtaining work after SCI during the past decades because of the psychological, social, financial, and political implications....

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Autor principal: Alwashmi, Ahmad H
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6424544/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30911443
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.3886
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author Alwashmi, Ahmad H
author_facet Alwashmi, Ahmad H
author_sort Alwashmi, Ahmad H
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description Background: Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of spinal cord injury (SCI) in Saudi Arabia, mainly involving young adults. Much attention has been dedicated to obtaining work after SCI during the past decades because of the psychological, social, financial, and political implications. Since high unemployment rates pose a significant social burden due to the increase in the expenditures associated with benefits, it remains an important consideration in individuals with activity limitation after spinal cord injury. There are no current data or guidelines for community reintegration or employment rates in the spinal cord injury population in Saudi Arabia. Objective: The objective of our study was to identify the awareness of vocational rehabilitation in individuals with spinal cord injury in Saudi Arabia. Design and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the outpatient department of the largest tertiary care rehabilitation hospital in Saudi Arabia. After obtaining informed consent, structured interviews were conducted from March 2018 through July 2018 (five months) by the primary investigator and a rehabilitation nurse The interviews were administered in a one-to-one format. Results: One hundred and twenty-one male patients with SCI were included in the study with mean age of 35.6 ± 13.9 years. Seventy (57.9) were employed at the time of injury. The employment rate decreased significantly after injury; only 20 (16.5%) were employed, 38 (31.4%) had retired, and 11 (9.1%) patients resumed their studies. One hundred and five (86.8%) patients received rehabilitation treatment as an inpatient. Ninety-four (77.7%) reported that they had no idea about vocational rehabilitation. Only five patients (4.1%) received services of vocational rehabilitation. Conclusion: Vocational rehabilitation awareness among spinal cord injury male patients in Saudi Arabia is lacking. This needs to be addressed to overcome unemployment and improve the quality of life which in turn may reduce the economic burden and costs among spinal cord injury patients in Saudi Arabia.
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spelling pubmed-64245442019-03-25 Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Among Spinal Cord Injury Male Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Brief Communication Alwashmi, Ahmad H Cureus Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Background: Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of spinal cord injury (SCI) in Saudi Arabia, mainly involving young adults. Much attention has been dedicated to obtaining work after SCI during the past decades because of the psychological, social, financial, and political implications. Since high unemployment rates pose a significant social burden due to the increase in the expenditures associated with benefits, it remains an important consideration in individuals with activity limitation after spinal cord injury. There are no current data or guidelines for community reintegration or employment rates in the spinal cord injury population in Saudi Arabia. Objective: The objective of our study was to identify the awareness of vocational rehabilitation in individuals with spinal cord injury in Saudi Arabia. Design and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the outpatient department of the largest tertiary care rehabilitation hospital in Saudi Arabia. After obtaining informed consent, structured interviews were conducted from March 2018 through July 2018 (five months) by the primary investigator and a rehabilitation nurse The interviews were administered in a one-to-one format. Results: One hundred and twenty-one male patients with SCI were included in the study with mean age of 35.6 ± 13.9 years. Seventy (57.9) were employed at the time of injury. The employment rate decreased significantly after injury; only 20 (16.5%) were employed, 38 (31.4%) had retired, and 11 (9.1%) patients resumed their studies. One hundred and five (86.8%) patients received rehabilitation treatment as an inpatient. Ninety-four (77.7%) reported that they had no idea about vocational rehabilitation. Only five patients (4.1%) received services of vocational rehabilitation. Conclusion: Vocational rehabilitation awareness among spinal cord injury male patients in Saudi Arabia is lacking. This needs to be addressed to overcome unemployment and improve the quality of life which in turn may reduce the economic burden and costs among spinal cord injury patients in Saudi Arabia. Cureus 2019-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC6424544/ /pubmed/30911443 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.3886 Text en Copyright © 2019, Alwashmi et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Alwashmi, Ahmad H
Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Among Spinal Cord Injury Male Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Brief Communication
title Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Among Spinal Cord Injury Male Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Brief Communication
title_full Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Among Spinal Cord Injury Male Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Brief Communication
title_fullStr Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Among Spinal Cord Injury Male Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Brief Communication
title_full_unstemmed Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Among Spinal Cord Injury Male Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Brief Communication
title_short Vocational Rehabilitation Awareness Among Spinal Cord Injury Male Patients in Saudi Arabia: A Brief Communication
title_sort vocational rehabilitation awareness among spinal cord injury male patients in saudi arabia: a brief communication
topic Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6424544/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30911443
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.3886
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