Before the Accommodation Principle: Disability and Employment Among Union Army Veterans.
Larry M Logue, Peter Blanck
PMID 33159642WHAT IT FOUND
Union army veterans with disabilities were often unemployed, but they also returned to work more often than veterans without disabilities.
For pensions under $18 per month, disability was a stronger marker of unemployment than income.
Key findings
01For the 95 percent of Union army sample members who received pensions of less than $18 per month, joblessness was more closely linked to self-reported disability than to pension income.
02Veterans with disabilities were frequently unemployed in 1880, but they were also more apt to have returned to work than veterans without disability.
03Higher monthly pension payments were linked to a higher probability of being without work in 1880, but pensioners also returned to work.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
This is a historical analysis of census and pension records, not a study of current patients or treatments. The paper does not give a total participant number, so the size of the raw samples is not visible. The disability measure was a census question using terms such as maimed, crippled, and disabled without further definition, so it depends on how people and enumerators understood it. Some men may have answered about disability or occupation for reasons other than their actual condition or work situation. The samples include survivors to later census years, so they carry a survivor bias. The analysis estimates associations among age, race, marriage, veteran status, disability, and pension income; it cannot show that any of these caused employment outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared that they have no conflict of interest. The paper is tagged as supported by U.S. government Public Health Service research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the pension findings as proof that benefits made veterans idle. Higher pensions were linked to more unemployment, but disability was the stronger marker for veterans with smaller pensions, and pensioners also returned to work.