Artikel: Early retirement and non-employment after breast cancer

Methods: We identified breast cancer survivors diagnosed between 1997 and 2002 from either a hos- pital or a cancer registry in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway (NOCWO study). All patients had been treated with curative intent. Information on employment, co-morbidity and support was col- lected via a questionnaire. The sample included 1111 working-aged cancer-free survivors who had been employed at the time of diagnosis. We used multinomial logistic regression models to analyse the association of various determinants with early retirement and other non-employment (due to un- employment, subsidized employment or being a homemaker).

Results: Low education, low physical quality of life, co-morbidity and pain were associated with both early retirement and other non-employment after cancer. Other non-employed survivors also rated their mental quality of life as lower and experienced anxiety and fatigue more often than all the other survivors. Moreover, they reported a lower level of supervisor support after their diagnosis than the employed survivors. Retired survivors more often reported weak support from colleagues.

Conclusions: Differences in ill health and functional status between various groups of non-employed cancer survivors need to be considered when planning policy measures for improving the labour mar- ket participation of this population and preventing their early withdrawal from working life.