Partnership Status and Living Situation in Persons Experiencing Physical Disability in 22 Countries: Are There Patterns According to Individual and Country-Level Characteristics?

Abstract

Persons experiencing disabilities often face difficulties to establish and maintain intimate partnerships and the decision whether to live alone or with others is often not their own to make. This study investigates whether individual and country-level characteristics predict the partnership status and the living situation of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) from 22 countries. We used data from 12,591 participants of the International SCI Community Survey (InSCI) and regressed partnership status and living situation on individual (sociodemographic and injury characteristics) and country-level characteristics (Human Development Index, HDI) using multilevel models. Females, younger persons, those with lower income, without paid work, more severe injuries, and longer time since injury were more often single. Males, older persons, those with higher income, paid work, less severe injuries, and those from countries with higher HDI more often lived alone. This study provides initial evidence for the claim that the partnership status and the living situation of people with SCI are influenced by sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors and are not merely a matter of choice, in particular for those with severe injuries.

Socioeconomic status and social relationships in persons with spinal cord injury from 22 countries: Does the countries’ socioeconomic development moderate associations?

“…One potential explanation is that formal help is less available in countries with lower SED and that informal care from family, friends and within neighborhoods is comparably higher [66], leading to higher relationship satisfaction. Earlier findings from the InSCI study also showed that persons from higher SED countries more often live alone [67]. This may not only affect their relationship satisfaction as everyday social interaction with persons in the same household is missing, but could also affect their social participation outside the home as household members could be instrumental in overcoming environmental barriers.…”

Utilising International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Conditions (ICD)-10 Australian Modification Classifications of “Health Conditions” to Achieve Population Health Surveillance in an Australian Spinal Cord Injury Cohort

“…In consideration of injury surveillance in the context of SCI/D, an important concept in interpreting the epidemiological literature is that differences in the lived experience within or between countries can impart significant differences in prevalence and influence survival, co-morbidity profiles, and the outcomes of survivors [ 6 – 9 ]. At an individual level these differences may or may not involve relationships between demographic, personal, ethno-cultural or socio-economic factors and prevalence or between these factors and the lived experience [ 6 – 9 ]. At the contextual level numerous reports have confirmed that personal , and functional factors, related health conditions, quality of life [ 9 ], environmental barriers [ 8 ] and socio-economic [ 10 ] status may influence the lived experience [ 11 , 12 ].…”

“…At an individual level these differences may or may not involve relationships between demographic, personal, ethno-cultural or socio-economic factors and prevalence or between these factors and the lived experience [ 6 – 9 ]. At the contextual level numerous reports have confirmed that personal , and functional factors, related health conditions, quality of life [ 9 ], environmental barriers [ 8 ] and socio-economic [ 10 ] status may influence the lived experience [ 11 , 12 ]. Another level of complexity involves the influence of health system performance on these contextual factors and central to this is the interaction between this variable and the quality of public health data repositories or registries.…”