Return to work after breast cancer: The role of treatment‐related side effects and potential impact on quality of life

For breast cancer survivors return to work (RTW) is important from an economic, societal and personal perspective. Thus, we investigated the impact of side effects and other factors on RTW. Five years post‐diagnosis 135 disease‐free breast cancer survivors below retirement age who were employed pre‐...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of cancer care Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. e13051 - n/a
Main Authors: Schmidt, Martina E., Scherer, Sophie, Wiskemann, Joachim, Steindorf, Karen
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.07.2019
Subjects:
Arm
Breast cancer
Breast Neoplasms - psychology
Breast Neoplasms - rehabilitation
Breast Neoplasms - therapy
Cancer Survivors - psychology
Cancer Survivors - statistics & numerical data
cancer survivorship
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant - adverse effects
Cognition Disorders - etiology
Cognitive ability
Diagnosis
employment
Employment - psychology
Employment - statistics & numerical data
Fatigue
Fatigue - etiology
Female
Germany
Humans
Impact analysis
Lymphedema - etiology
Mental depression
Mental Disorders - etiology
Middle Aged
Morbidity
occupation
Postoperative Complications - etiology
Prospective Studies
Quality of life
Radiotherapy, Adjuvant - adverse effects
Range of Motion, Articular - physiology
rehabilitation
Relaxation Therapy - methods
Resistance Training - methods
Retirement
Return to Work - psychology
Return to Work - statistics & numerical data
Side effects
Signs and symptoms
Socioeconomic Factors
supportive care
Surgery
Survival
Survivor
Germany
fatigue
rehabilitation
occupation
cancer survivorship
employment
supportive care
ISSN:0961-5423, 1365-2354, 1365-2354
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:For breast cancer survivors return to work (RTW) is important from an economic, societal and personal perspective. Thus, we investigated the impact of side effects and other factors on RTW. Five years post‐diagnosis 135 disease‐free breast cancer survivors below retirement age who were employed pre‐diagnosis recorded their current and previous working status and reasons for impaired RTW. Patient‐reported outcomes were prospectively reported over the cancer continuum. One year post‐surgery 57% of survivors worked the same and 22% with reduced working time compared to pre‐diagnosis. Logistic regression revealed significant associations of depressive symptoms, arm morbidity, lower education and younger age with impaired RTW after 1 year, and persisting physical fatigue and living with partner with impaired RTW after 5 years. Major self‐reported reasons included fatigue and cognitive problems. Temporal patterns of general quality of life (QoL), physical, cognitive and role function, and financial problems were significantly worse among women with no RTW compared to those working again. In conclusion, cessation of work after breast cancer seems associated with worse QoL. Fatigue, psychological and cognitive problems as well as arm morbidity seemed to hinder RTW. Thus, a better management of these problems might help women to stay in working life.
Bibliography:Funding information
The BEST study was supported by the Interdisciplinary Research Funding Program (intramural) of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg, Germany.
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-2
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ObjectType-Undefined-3
ISSN:0961-5423
1365-2354
1365-2354
DOI:10.1111/ecc.13051