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Return to work among self-employed cancer survivors

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An Erratum to this article was published on 15 December 2016

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study is to investigate whether salaried and self-employed workers differ regarding factors relevant for return to work after being diagnosed with cancer. The possible mediators of an effect of self-employment on work ability were also investigated.

Methods

A total of 1115 cancer survivors (1027 salaried and 88 self-employed) of common invasive cancer types who were in work at the time of diagnosis completed a mailed questionnaire 15–39 months after diagnosis.

Results

Twenty-four percent of self-employed cancer survivors reported that they had not returned to work at the time of the survey, and 18 % of those who were salaried had not. While 9 % of the self-employed had received disability or early retirement pension, only 5 % had received such a pension among salaried employees. Compared with the salaried workers, the self-employed people reported significantly more often reduced work hours (P < 0.001), negative cancer-related financial (P < 0.001), and occupational changes (P = 0.005) and low overall health (P = 0.02), quality of life (P = 0.04), and total work ability (P = 0.02). The negative effect of self-employment on total work ability seems to be mediated by reduced work hours and a negative cancer-related financial change.

Conclusions

Compared with salaried, self-employed workers in Norway, they seem to struggle with work after cancer. This may be because the two groups have different work tasks and because self-employed people have lower social support at work and less legal support from the Working Environment Act and public health insurance.

Implications for cancer survivors

Self-employed people with cancer should be informed about the work-related challenges they may encounter and be advised to seek practical help from social workers who know about the legal rights of self-employed people.

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Acknowledgments

The Norwegian Cancer Society requested and funded this project but was not influential in the data collection, statistical analysis, or findings presented in this study. The study has been performed as collaboration within the European Cancer and Work Network (CanWon).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Promotion, University College of Southeast Norway, PO Box 4, 3199, Borre, Norway

    Steffen Torp, Jonn Syse & Sævar Gudbergsson

  2. Aix-Marseille School of Economics (Aix-Marseille University, GREQAM) & Southeastern Health Observatory (ORS PACA), Aix-Marseille, France

    Alain Paraponaris

Authors
  1. Steffen Torp
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  2. Jonn Syse
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  4. Sævar Gudbergsson
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Correspondence to Steffen Torp.

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Additional information

The original version of this article was revised: In table 1, the misaligned columns are corrected in this version.

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11764-016-0586-8.

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Torp, S., Syse, J., Paraponaris, A. et al. Return to work among self-employed cancer survivors. J Cancer Surviv 11, 189–200 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-016-0578-8

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