Rights statement: Copyright: © 2013 Taylor-Robinson et al. 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.
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - A longitudinal study of the impact of social deprivation and disease severity on employment status in the UK Cystic Fibrosis population
AU - Taylor-Robinson, David C.
AU - Smyth, Rosalind
AU - Diggle, Peter J.
AU - Whitehead, Margaret
N1 - Copyright: © 2013 Taylor-Robinson et al. 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.
PY - 2013/8/23
Y1 - 2013/8/23
N2 - BackgroundPeople with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) in the UK and elsewhere are increasingly surviving into adulthood, yet there is little research on the employment consequences of having CF. We investigated, for the first time in a UK-wide cohort, longitudinal employment status, and its association with deprivation, disease severity, and time in hospital.MethodsWe did a longitudinal registry study of adults with CF in the UK aged 20 to 40 (3458 people with 15,572 observations between 1996 and 2010), using mixed effects models.ResultsAround 50% of adults with CF were in employment. Male sex, higher lung function and body mass index, and less time in hospital were associated with improved employment chances. All other things being equal, being in the most deprived quintile was associated with a reduction of employment prevalence of 17.6 percentage points compared to the prevalence in the least deprived quintile. Having poor lung function was associated with a reduced employment prevalence of 7.2 percentage points compared to the prevalence for people with relatively good lung function. Acting synergistically, deprivation modifies the effect of lung function on employment chances – poor lung function in the least deprived group was associated with a 3 percentage point reduction in employment chances, while poor lung function in the most deprived quintile was associated with a 7.7 point reduction in employment chances.ConclusionsGreater deprivation, disease severity, and time in hospital are all associated with employment chances in adults with CF. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that deprivation amplifies the harmful association of disease severity on employment. Future studies should focus on understanding and mitigating the barriers to employment faced by people with CF.
AB - BackgroundPeople with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) in the UK and elsewhere are increasingly surviving into adulthood, yet there is little research on the employment consequences of having CF. We investigated, for the first time in a UK-wide cohort, longitudinal employment status, and its association with deprivation, disease severity, and time in hospital.MethodsWe did a longitudinal registry study of adults with CF in the UK aged 20 to 40 (3458 people with 15,572 observations between 1996 and 2010), using mixed effects models.ResultsAround 50% of adults with CF were in employment. Male sex, higher lung function and body mass index, and less time in hospital were associated with improved employment chances. All other things being equal, being in the most deprived quintile was associated with a reduction of employment prevalence of 17.6 percentage points compared to the prevalence in the least deprived quintile. Having poor lung function was associated with a reduced employment prevalence of 7.2 percentage points compared to the prevalence for people with relatively good lung function. Acting synergistically, deprivation modifies the effect of lung function on employment chances – poor lung function in the least deprived group was associated with a 3 percentage point reduction in employment chances, while poor lung function in the most deprived quintile was associated with a 7.7 point reduction in employment chances.ConclusionsGreater deprivation, disease severity, and time in hospital are all associated with employment chances in adults with CF. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that deprivation amplifies the harmful association of disease severity on employment. Future studies should focus on understanding and mitigating the barriers to employment faced by people with CF.
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0073322
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0073322
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 24009747
VL - 8
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 8
M1 - e73322
ER -