Key result
Cancer-related symptoms, psychosocial factors, lack of support, and poor working environments act as barriers to work functioning, whereas high social support, open dialogue, and work autonomy facilitate it.
Psychosocial and work-related factors, alongside cancer-related symptoms, significantly influence work functioning in cancer survivors after returning to work.
May inform supportive strategies for cancer survivors returning to work; hypothesis-generating and requires interventional trials before practice change.
PURPOSE: Cancer survivors (CSs) frequently return to work, but little is known about work functioning after return to work (RTW). We aimed to identify barriers and facilitators of work functioning among CSs. METHODS: Three focus groups were conducted with CSs (n = 6, n = 8 and n = 8) and one focus group with occupational health professionals (n = 7). Concepts were identified by thematic analysis, using the Cancer and Work model as theoretical framework to structure the results. RESULTS: Long-lasting symptoms (e.g. fatigue), poor adaptation, high work ethics, negative attitude to work, ambiguous communication, lack of support and changes in the work environment were mentioned as barriers of work functioning. In contrast, staying at work during treatment, open dialogue, high social support, appropriate work accommodations and high work autonomy facilitated work functioning. CONCLUSIONS: Not only cancer-related symptoms affect work functioning of CSs after RTW but also psychosocial and work-related factors. The barriers and facilitators of work functioning should be further investigated in studies with a longitudinal design to examine work functioning over time.
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Dorland et al. (2015) studied Cancer (n=29). Factors influencing work functioning was evaluated on Barriers and facilitators of work functioning. Cancer-related symptoms, psychosocial factors, lack of support, and poor working environments act as barriers to work functioning, whereas high social support, open dialogue, and work autonomy facilitate it.
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