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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify disparities in successful return-to-work outcome rates based on race, gender, and level of educational attainment at closure among veterans with a signed Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE). A randomized split-half cross-model validation research design was used to develop and test a series of logistic regression models for goodness of fit across two samples (i.e., screening and calibration) of case records (N = 11,337) obtained from the national Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)-911 database. The final predictive multinomial logistic regression model indicated that (a) the odds of White veterans successfully returning to work were nearly 1½ times the odds of African American veterans returning to work and (b) African American female veterans had the lowest probability for successfully returning to work. Moreover, findings indicated that African American veterans’ successful return-to-work rates in 5 of the 10 RSA regions were below the national benchmark. Recommendations for policy development and future research directions are presented.

Keywords

African American veterans state vocational rehabilitation agencies RSA-911 data assessment and cross-validation research methods minority access and outcome rates

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Return-to-Work Outcome Rates of African American Versus White Veterans Served by State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies

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