Employment and Gainful Earnings among those with Multiple Sclerosis

Publication date: Available online 6 December 2018

Source: Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Author(s): James S. Krause, Clara E. Dismuke-Greer, Melinda Jarnecke, Chao Li, Karla S. Reed, Phillip Rumrill

ABSTRACT

Objective

To identify demographic, educational, and disease-related characteristics associated with the odds of employment and earnings among participants with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Design

Cross-sectional using self-report assessment obtained by mail or online

Setting

Medical University in the southeastern United States.

Participant

Participants with MS (n = 1059) were enrolled from a specialty hospital in the southeastern United States. All were adults under the age of 65 at the time of assessment.

Interventions

NA

Main Outcome Measures

Current employment status and earnings

Results

MS factors were highly related to employment, yet not as strongly to conditional earnings. Those with no symptoms reported 6.25 greater odds of employment than those with severe current symptoms. Compared with those with progressive MS, those with relapsing/remitting had a greater odds of employment (OR = 2.24). Participants with no perceived cognitive impairment had 1.83 greater odds of employment than those with moderate to severe perceived cognitive impairment. Those with less than 10 years since MS diagnosis had 2.74 greater odds of employment compared with those with more than 20 years since diagnosis. An absence of problematic fatigue was highly related to the probability of employment (OR = 5.01) and higher conditional earnings ($14,454), whereas the remaining MS variables were unrelated to conditional earnings. For non-MS variables, education was highly related to employment status and conditional earnings, as those with a postgraduate degree had 2.87 greater odds of employment and $44,346 greater earnings than those with no more than a high school certificate. Non-Hispanic Whites had 2.22 greater odds of employment and $16,118 greater conditional earnings than non-Hispanic Blacks, and men reported $30,730 more in conditional earnings than women.

Conclusions

MS indicators were significantly associated with employment status including time since diagnosis, fatigue, symptom severity, and presence of cognitive impairment. However, among those who were employed, conditional earnings were less highly related to these factors and more highly related to educational attainment.

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