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Factors impacting employment outcomes for persons with spinal cord injury in South Korea

Spinal Cord volume 63, pages 257–262 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Study design

Cross-sectional survey.

Objectives

To identify the factors determining the employment of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) living in South Korea, which shows a lower-than-average employment rate in international comparative studies, and to examine the potential importance for policy.

Setting

Community of patients with SCI who are members of the Korea Spinal Cord Injury Association (KSCIA).

Methods

A survey involving 200 members of the KSCIA was conducted. In the analysis, we included 177 individuals aged 15–64 years and were at least 2 years post-injury at the time of the survey. Descriptive statistics were calculated and logistic regression was applied to examine the association between 11 variables and employment outcomes.

Results

A higher “education level” and participation in “vocational rehabilitation services” were positively associated with employment for individuals with SCI. By contrast, “receiving welfare benefits” was negatively associated with employment probability. The analysis, which categorized employment predictors into human capital, injury, and environmental models, showed no associations for factors in the Injury Model but indicated positive associations for education in the Human Capital Model and for receiving compensation in the form of welfare benefits and participation in vocational rehabilitation services in the Environment Model.

Conclusions

Among the three models, the Environment Model had the greatest explanatory power. This suggests that in Korea, policy interventions targeting modifiable environmental factors hold significant potential to improve employment outcomes for individuals with SCI.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the National Rehabilitation Center for making this project possible, and the Korea Spinal Cord Injury Association (KSCIA) for their interest and support. Tae-Hyung Noh from KSCIA provided invaluable support for this survey. Hye-Jin Kim of Hanyang Women’s University deserves recognition for her assistance throughout the project.

Funding

This study was supported by the Rehabilitation Research & Development Support Program (#NRCRSP-EX20009) of the National Rehabilitation Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea

    Kwang-Jin Jung

  2. Employment Development Institute, Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Seongnam, South Korea

    Yong-Tak Kim

  3. Department of Rehabilitation Counseling, Daegu Cyber University, Gyeongsan, South Korea

    Mi-Ri Jeon

  4. Korea Spinal Cord Injury Association, Seoul, South Korea

    Chan-Woo Lee

  5. Department of Social Welfare, Hanyang Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea

    Keum-Jin Lee

Authors
  1. Kwang-Jin Jung
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  2. Yong-Tak Kim
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  3. Mi-Ri Jeon
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  4. Chan-Woo Lee
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  5. Keum-Jin Lee
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Contributions

All authors participated in the study design and questionnaire development. CWL supervised the survey. The first draft was prepared by KJJ and KJL, while YTK, MRJ, and CWL contributed to data interpretation and draft preparation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keum-Jin Lee.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and ethical approval for the protection of participants’ rights and ethical considerations during the 2020 survey was granted by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Hanyang Women’s University, Seoul, Korea (approved July 17, 2020. AN01-202007-HR-007-02). We certify that all applicable institutional and governmental regulations concerning the ethical use of human volunteers were followed during the course of this research.

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Jung, KJ., Kim, YT., Jeon, MR. et al. Factors impacting employment outcomes for persons with spinal cord injury in South Korea. Spinal Cord 63, 257–262 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-025-01076-y

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