Meaning of Work Participation After Spinal Cord Injury in Bangladesh: A Qualitative Study in a Low- and Middle-Income Country Context

This study aimed to explore the meaning of work participation for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Bangladesh.

Narrative inquiry methodological framework was used to explore the meaning of work participation after SCI. Face-to-face interviews with twenty adults with SCI, who were either living in the community or in-patients at a rehabilitation center. The Worker Role Interview questionnaire was used as an interview guide. Participants were descriptively analyzed in two groups, rehabilitation participants and community participants. Their transcripts were analyzed using individual narrative analysis to understand the meaning of their experience at an individual level and then the findings from the individual narrative analyses were summarized using thematic analysis to identify themes that collectively represented the meaning of work after SCI in Bangladesh.

Five themes were identified from the interviews: “work life before injury”; “current life in relation to work”; “framing future prospects of work participation”; “motives for working”; and “enablers of work participation.”

The meaning of work is subjective and is influenced by the participants’ pre-existing experiences and other factors related to their work life, such as work preferences, habits, and daily routines. Therefore, creating opportunities to better understand the meaning of work for each individual and incorporating these factors into rehabilitation are keys to sustainable rehabilitation outcomes.