The proposed project, 'SLE and Employment: The Impact of Individual and Contextual Factors' has twoprincipal aims: to describe the work dynamics of persons with SLE from the year of diagnosis (an average of13 years before the study began) through 2010 and to assess the impact of characteristics of individuals withSLE (nature of their SLE, overall health status, demographics, and work history) and characteristics of thework, residential, and macroeconomic environment on employment outcomes. Of note, the project willassess the impact of specific job accommodations on the work outcomes of SLE.The principal data source for the project will be the Lupus Outcomes Study (LOS). In the LOS, about 1,175persons with SLE are being followed through annual structured telephone interviews conducted by trainedsurvey workers, augmented by data on the SLE from a comprehensive review of medical charts and analysisof biological material from buccal DMA and/or blood samples. The LOS data will be augmented bycontextual information on the nature of the local communities of the LOS participants matched to theinterview data at the level of the Census block group, by data on the local labor market from the Bureau ofLabor Statistics, and by data from the same source on the demand for labor in specific occupations andindustries in the nation as a whole. In addition, the March Supplement to the Census Bureau's CurrentPopulation Survey (CPS) will be used to develop models of labor force participation. The models developedin the CPS will then be applied to the LOS data to provide estimates of the labor force participation ofpersons with SLE in the presence or absence of their illness.The project should provide the most systematic estimates of the work outcomes of SLE and of the factorsaffecting those outcomes. The information should help persons with SLE understand their work prognosesand should assist health care providers and rehabilitation professionals in devising strategies to reduce theprevalence of work disability.
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