Living Productively Enhances Self-Esteem
(Reprinted by the permission of the American Cancer Society, Inc. from www.cancer.org. All rights reserved.)Today there are more cancer survivors than ever, thanks to improvements in early diagnosis and treatment. For young and middle-aged survivors, returning to work is vital for financial and social well-being, as well as for self-esteem, researchers said.
A recent Dutch study reported in Psycho-Oncology (Vol. 11: 124-131) looked at factors related to cancer survivors and their return to work. The study looked at survivors in North America and the Netherlands.
Returning to work is not only important to cancer survivors, but to the whole society as well, said Evelien R. Spelten, PhD, at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam.
Quality of Life Improves With Return to Work
Spelten and her colleagues focused on 14 studies conducted between 1985 and 1999 to find out how many cancer survivors stay in the work force, and what factors are related to their return to work.
In the studies reviewed, Spelten found the average time of return after diagnosis or the end of treatment ranged from less than one year to eight years. She found that if more time had passed since the end of treatment, then the greater the return to work.
Spelten found that returning to work improved the quality of life for many cancer patients. Positive work-related factors included a supportive work environment and attitude from coworkers, as well as a flexibility of work hours and amount of work. Negative factors were associated with those jobs with physical demands.
"Interestingly, discrimination at work was not significantly related to return to work and did not seem to be a more prevalent problem among cancer survivors than in a control group," said Spelten.
Changing Attitude Towards Work a Factor
Factors affecting a cancer survivor's return to work included a changing attitude towards work. The importance of work decreased, and a "life-is-too-short" attitude was evident, said Spelton. Most of the studies found increasing age and fatigue mostly did not affect the decision to return to work.
Education, income, gender, and marital status were not associated with return to work, Spelton said.
The researchers qualified their findings by noting the scarcity of information available. They pointed out a general lack of systematic research into the return to work by cancer patients as well as information on the prevalence of cancer in the working population.
Given the increasing number of cancer survivors, the authors recommend that more research is needed.
"This information can be used to design interventions to facilitate the return to work of cancer survivors by health care workers such as nurses, clinicians, occupational physicians, psychologists, and social workers," said Spelton.
