Toronto • May 28-29, 2010 • Student Day and Workshops: May 27
Paper: Understanding the longer term impacts of disability onset
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Session : 12. Long-duration disability episodes
Day/Time: Saturday at 11:15
Room: St. Patrick Room, 3rd Floor
Objectives:
Very little literature is available about how onset of a permanent condition while at work affects the nature subsequent employment history. Furthermore, despite considerable emphasis on return to work, there is little analysis related to indicators of re-integration, such as job retention or career progression. This paper examines trends in a series of measures related to these indicators, measured over the mid-term (defined here as 3-4 years following onsets) using Statistics Canada survey data.
Methods:
Using Statistics Canada’s Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, this work examines longitudinal work-history trends of people who experience the onset of an on-going disability while employed. A combination analysis of variance/covariance, and multi-level modeling regression techniques will be used to examine: employment status; job mobility; changes in the terms of work (hours, weeks worked); surrogates of employment progression (job status; responsibilities etc) and changes in salary/wages/employment income will be examined. Comparison will be provided between samples experiencing onset of a continuously reported health and activity limitation over a four-year period and those indicating no disability, holding age, sex and initial job skill level (as indication in the National Occupational Classification (NOC)) constant.
Results:
Results to date indicate that in the mid-term there is no discernible difference in the likelihood of either being employed at the same job or likelihood of full-time work between those experiencing onset of a permanent conditions and those indicating that they had no disability (Spector et al. (2008)), hold age, sex and occupation (single-digit NOC). Results reported here are similar but also show a lag in total employment income, largely related to a lower likelihood of employment progression and some curtailment in hours worked (beyond “full time”).
Conclusions:
In many respects, people experiencing onset of a permanent health or activity limitation while at work are very likely to find themselves, in the mid-term back, at their job, working at the same “intensity”. However, there is significant evidence that this population experiences barriers in “keeping up” with others in terms of career progression, and earnings capacity.
References:
Spector, A., A. Lam, J. Sykes and J. Uriarte-Landa (2008) “Identifying and operationalizing indicators of work retention for working age people with disabilities”, Internal Research Report, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Policy Research Directorate, Gatineau, Quebec.
