engleski

Return to work in women with breast cancer

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Cancer diagnosed in the working-age population is increasing. Improvements in screening, early diagnosis and advances in treatment have resulted in improved prognosis of breast cancer. An increasing number of working-age woman with breast cancer is facing many difficulties during the return to work (RTW) process and have reduced work ability compared to cancer-free controls. KEYWORDS: breast neoplasms, return to work METHODS OF WORK: The electronic database PubMed was used for analysis in June 2019. The main search words used were: breast neoplasms, return to work. Search was limited to articles written in English with no time limitation. RESULTS: A total of 48 studies was selected for the review. Most of the studies (n= 37) were quantitative in nature and publish from 1997 to 2019. The rate of RTV within one year after diagnosis is from 43% in the Netherlands to 93% in the USA. Most of the study agree that factors who are facilitators and barriers for RTW are divided into: socio-demographic factors, disease-related factors, treatment-related factors, psychological factors, work-related factors and economic factors. Facilitators of RTW are: young age, marital status single, divorced or widowed, higher level of education, high- income, higher life satisfaction, an early stage of disease, health worker, co-worker and employers active support. Key barriers of RTW are: older age, married, lower level of education, low-income, advanced stage of breast cancer, extensive surgery, radiotherapy, hormonal-therapy, comorbidity, poor social support, overprotective family, part-time employment, high job demand, stressful work, and lack of support from the colleagues and employer. Chemotherapy has been reported to be the mayor barrier for RTW due to its side effects. Several studies found that multidisciplinary interventions, combining physical activity, counselling and education, could be the most helpful approach to approve RTW. CONCLUSION: Despite all the barriers for RTW, a majority of breast cancer survivor’s tent to RTW. For them, RTW is a part of social recovery and a step towards improving the quality of life. To resolve women's concerns about returning to work, employers, and healthcare workers should aim to increase and improve communication with breast cancer patients and give more active and supportive role in RTW process.

breast cancer ; women ; return to work

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