Disparities in Rehabilitation Services for Victims of Violence

Introduction: Access to rehabilitation services after a traumatic injury improves functional outcomes. No study has examined the association between injury intent, violent versus nonviolent, and receipt of rehabilitation services after injury.

Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of injured adult patients admitted to our level I trauma center from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2021. The primary exposure was violent injury, and the primary outcome was receipt of rehabilitation services upon discharge. An exploratory subgroup analysis evaluated differences in recommended disposition and the reasons for rejection from services.

Results: Among 7500 patients, 1677 (22.4%) were violently injured and 5823 (77.6%) were nonviolently injured. Patients were 45% White, 67% male, and 52% had public insurance. Adjusting for age, sex, race, ethnicity, injury severity score, insurance, and length of stay, violently injured patients were 77% less likely to receive inpatient rehabilitation (relative risk ratio 0.23 95% confidence interval [0.18, 0.30], P < 0.001) and 46% less likely to have home services (relative risk ratio 0.54, 95% confidence interval[0.43, 0.69], P < 0.001). A subgroup analysis (n = 328) demonstrated that violently injured patients were more likely to have a downgrade in discharge recommendation (27.8% versus 9.4%, P = 0.04) and more likely to have an emergency department visit within 30 d (32.0% versus 13.3%, P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Violent injury is associated with lower likelihood of receiving rehabilitation services. Subgroup analysis indicates this finding associated with facilities' selection bias, and this warrants additional study. Efforts should focus on protecting victims of violence from discrimination during the rehabilitation screening process.