Sick leave of spouses to cancer patients before and after diagnosis

Figures & data

Table I. Description of sample.

Cancer of patient	Spouses, N	Women, N (%)	Men, N (%)	Age 25–44 years^*, N (%)	Age 45–64 years, N (%)
Colon cancer	162	113 (70)	49 (30)	16 (10)	146 (90)
Rectal cancer	106	78 (66)	28 (34)	8 (8)	98 (92)
Lung cancer	230	144 (63)	86 (37)	16 (7)	214 (93)
Breast cancer	548	2 (<1)	546 (>99)	84 (15)	464 (85)
Prostate cancer	877	873 (>99)	4 (<1)	27 (3)	850 (97)
Total	1923	1210 (63)	713 (37)	151 (8)	1772 (92)

^*No partner below the age of 25 years was identified.

Table II. Percent of spouses to cancer patients with sick leave episodes over the period of two years (one year before until one year after the cancer diagnosis).

	Cancer of patient
Number of sick leave episodes by spouses	Colon cancer N=162 %	Rectal cancer N=106 %	Lung cancer N=230 %	Breast cancer N=548 %	Prostate cancer N=877 %	Total N=1923 %
One episode	12	17	13	10	12	12
Two episodes	5	8	7	2	2	3
Three episodes	2	1	3	<1	<1	<1
Four episodes	<1	–	<1	<1	<1	<1
Five episodes	–	–	<1	<1	<1	<1
One or more episodes	20	26	24	13	15	16

Figure 1. The mean numbers of new episodes of sick leave per spouse one year prior and one year after the diagnosis of the cancer patient (data is standardised for age and sex).

Figure 2. The percentage of new sick listing episodes per month for spouses to lung, colon, prostate, rectal and breast cancer patients, 12 months before until 12 months after the cancer diagnosis.

Figure 3. The percentage of ongoing episodes of sick leave (point prevalence) by spouses to lung, colon, prostate, rectal and breast cancer patients. Day 0 is the day of cancer diagnosis.

Figure 4. The mean number of gross and net sick days (see methods for definition) of spouses to cancer patients during the study period of two years.

Table III. Standardised sick day ratio (SSR)^* of spouses of cancer patients.

	Calendar year
Cancer of patient	2004	2005
Colon cancer
SSR	1.30	1.03
95% CI	0.89–1.81	0.64–1.55
No. of cases	83	79
Rectal cancer
SSR	1.27	0.90
95% CI	0.85–1.76	0.54–1.37
No. of cases	52	54
Lung cancer
SSR	1.70	1.76
95% CI	1.21–2.28	1.24–2.40
No. of cases	118	112
Breast cancer
SSR	1.08	0.93
95% CI	0.64–1.65	0.50–1.51
No. of cases	298	250
Prostate cancer
SSR	1.06	0.88
95% CI	0.71–1.50	0.54–1.31
No. of cases	450	427
Total
SSR	1.17	1.01
95% CI	0.77–1.67	0.62–1.51
No. of cases	1001	922

*The sick day ratio (SSR) is calculated by dividing the observed by the expected number of sick days generated by spouses. The expected number of sick days is based on the observed frequency of sick days in the general population, standardised for sex, age and marital status.