A comparative study of cancer patients with short and long sick-leave after primary treatment

Figures & data

Table I. Socio-demographic and cancer-related characteristics of the sick leave groups.

Variables	Short term sick leave group (n=359)	Long term sick leave group (n=481)	p	Effect Size
Socio-demographic at survey	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Age	51.7 (9.3)	50.8 (8.0)	0.13
	n (%)	N (%)
Sex			<0.001	0.27
Male	121 (34)	105 (22)
Female	238 (66)	376 (78)
Level of education			0.03	0.16
≤12 years	156 (43)	245 (51)
>12 years	203 (57)	234 (49)
Civil status			0.60
Paired	280 (78)	366 (77)
Non-paired	77 (22)	110 (23)
Children ≤17 years at home	99 (29)	154 (33)	0.19
Annual household income			0.11
<57 000 - EUR	306 (85)	390 (81)
≥57 000 - EUR	53 (15)	91 (19)
Economic problems			<0.001	0.37
Seldom/never	327 (92)	385 (80)
Often/sometimes	29 (8)	94 (20)
Cancer-related
Cancer type
Breast	136 (38)	264 (55)	<0.001	0.34
Gynaecological	41 (11)	21 (4)	<0.001	0.27
Prostate and testis	68 (19)	26 (6)	<0.001	0.41
Colorectal	29 (8)	47 (10)	0.47
Lymphomas	16 (5)	35 (7)	0.12
Melanomas	26 (7)	5 (1)	<0.001	0.34
Other types	43 (12)	83 (17)	0.03	0.14
Cancer treatment types
Surgery	310 (86)	402 (84)	0 . 27
Radiotherapy	160 (45)	322 (67)	<0.001	0.45
Chemotherapy	122 (34)	395 (82)	<0.001	1.01
Hormone treatment	68 (19)	204 (42)	<0.001	0.51
Other medical treatment	17 (5)	61 (13)	<0.001	0.29
Combinations of treatment	197 (55)	414 (86)	<0.001	0.61
Recurrence of cancer	29 (8)	106 (22)	<0.001	0.40
Work-related at diagnosis	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Supervisors social support at work	9.0 (4.1)	10.7 (4.3)	0.03	0.40
Colleagues social support at work	6.9 (1.6)	6.9 (1.8)	0.87
Working hours per week	37.3 (9.8)	36.0 (10.1)	0.07

Figure 1. Flowchart of procedures and response rates. *Cancer survivors not responding on questions concerning change at work due to cancer. Most probably they did not respond to these questions as their work situation has not changed due to cancer.

Table II. Self-rated health, overall quality of life and work issues of the sick-leave groups at the time of survey.

Variables	Shorter term sick leave (n=359)	Longer term sick leave (n=481)	p	Effect Size
Health and quality of life	n (%)	n (%)
Self-rated health status			<0.001	0.50
Very good/Good	308 (86)	308 (65)
Moderate/Bad/Very bad	48 (14)	169 (35)
≥ 1 co-morbid diseases	128 (36)	217 (45)	0.006	0.18
Regular use of medication	240 (67)	365 (76)	0.004	0.20
Offered physiotherapy, physical activity And/or psychosocial supportive care	10 (3)	38 (8)	0.001	0.23
Self-rated needs for physiotherapy, physical activity and/or psychosocial supportive care	32 (10)	85 (19)	<0.001	0.26
Overall quality of life			<0.001	0.36
Very good/Good	231 (90)	367 (77)
Moderate/Bad/Very bad	36 (10)	112 (23)
Work-related
Physical work ability			<0.001	0.55
Very good/Rather good	326 (97)	271 (81)
Moderate/Rather poor/Poor	11 (3)	64 (19)
Physical work ability reduced due to cancer	87 (26)	223 (66)	<0.001	0.83
Mental work ability			<0.001	0.30
Very good/Rather good	314 (93)	281 (84)
Moderate/Rather poor/Poor	22 (26)	54 (16)
Mental work ability reduced due to cancer	81 (24)	189 (56)	<0.001	0.67
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Overall current work ability	8.8 (1.8)	6.0 (3.1)	<0.001	1.10
Working hours per week	36.4 (8.8)	30.0 (12.8)	<0.001	0.57
Changes at workplace and employment after treatment	n (%)	n (%)
Changes of physical demands	26 (8)	88 (28)	<0.001	0.54
Changes of mental demands	23 (8)	76 (24)	<0.001	0.69
Changed employment due to cancer	33 (9)	193 (41)	<0.001	0.78

Table III. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses of various independent variables and long-term versus short term (reference) sick leave as dependent variable at the time of survey (n=840).

	Univariate			Multivariate
Independent variables	OR	95% CI	p	OR	95% CI	P
Social demographic
Sex (male = reference)	1.82	1.34–2.48	<0.001	1.33	0.67–2.66	0.42
Level of education (high = ref)	0.73	0.56–0.97	0.03	1.04	0.67–1.61	0.85
Economic problems (no = ref)	2.75	1.77–4.28	<0.001	2.08	0.97–4.48	0.06
Cancer and health
Breast/gyn cancer (others = ref)	1.50	1.14–1.97	0.004	1.22	0.66–2.25	0.52
Recurrence	3.24	2.09–5.02	<0.001	1.14	0.54–2.38	0.73
Combined treatment	5.98	4.43–8.09	<0.001	5.23	3.36–8.14	<0.001
Poor self–rated health (good = ref)	3.52	2.46–5.03	<0.001	0.85	0.43–1.71	0.65
Overall quality of life	2.72	1.82–4.08	<0.001	1.01	0.45–2.26	0.98
≥ 1 co-morbid disease(s) (0 = ref)	1.48	1.12–1.96	0.006	0.76	0.48–1.21	0.25
Current work situation
Working hours per week	0.94	0.93–0.96	<0.001	0.99	0.97–1.02	0.47
Physical work ability	7.00	3.62–13.54	<0.001	1.56	0.57–4.29	0.39
Mental work ability	2.74	1.63–4.62	<0.001	0.62	0.27–1.43	0.03
Overall current work ability	0.60	0.55–0.65	<0.001	0.58	0.49–0.69	<0.001
Support at work at survey
Supervisor support at work	1.04	1.01–1.08	0.03	1.06	1.00–1.12	0.04