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Correlates of Return to Work for Breast Cancer Survivors

From the Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI; and Department of Health Administration and Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

Address reprint requests to Reynard R. Bouknight, MD, PhD, Department of Medicine, Michigan State University, B-338 Clinical Center, East Lansing, MI 48824; e-mail: Rey.Bouknight{at}hc.msu.edu

Purpose To identify correlates of return to work for employed breast cancer survivors.

Patients and Methods Patients included 416 employed women with newly diagnosed breast cancer identified from the Metropolitan Detroit Cancer Surveillance System. Patients were interviewed by telephone 12 and 18 months after diagnosis. Correlates of return to work at 12 and 18 months were identified using multivariate logistic regression.

Results More than 80% of patients returned to work during the study period, and 87% reported that their employer was accommodating to their cancer illness and treatment. After adjusting for demographic characteristics, health status, cancer stage, treatment, and job type, heavy lifting on the job (odds ratio = 0.42; 95% CI, 0.18 to 0.99), perceived employer accommodation for cancer illness and treatment (odds ratio = 2.2; 95% CI, 1.03 to 4.8), and perceived employer discrimination because of a cancer diagnosis (odds ratio = 0.27; 95% CI, 0.10 to 0.71) were independently associated with return to work at 12 months after breast cancer diagnosis, and perceived employer accommodation (odds ratio = 2.3; 95% CI, 1.06 to 5.1) was independently associated with return to work at 18 months after breast cancer diagnosis.

Conclusion A high percentage of employed breast cancer patients returned to work after treatment, and workplace accommodations played an important role in their return. In addition, perceived employer discrimination because of cancer was negatively associated with return to work for breast cancer survivors. Employers seem to have a pivotal role in breast cancer patients' successful return to work.

Supported by National Cancer Institute Grant No. R01 CA80645-03S1 (Labor Market Outcomes of Long Term Cancer Survivors; C.J.B., Principal Investigator).

Presented in part at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine, Chicago, IL, May 12-15, 2004.

Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

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