The impact of colorectal cancer and self-efficacy beliefs on work ability and employment status: a longitudinal study

BAINS M., MUNIR F., YARKER J., BOWLEY D., THOMAS A., ARMITAGE N. & STEWARD W. (2012) European Journal of Cancer Care 21, 634-641 The impact of colorectal cancer and self-efficacy beliefs on work ability and employment status: a longitudinal study We examined how colorectal cancer patients' treatment and symptom management impacted perceptions of work ability and subsequent work decisions. Fifty patients completed questionnaires at baseline (post-surgery/ pretreatment), 3 months and 6 months. Questionnaires assessed fatigue, depression, quality-of-life (QoL), cancer self-efficacy, job self-efficacy (JSE) and work ability. Factors related to perceived work ability were occupation (beta = 0.31, P = 0.0005) and QoL (beta = 0.42, P = 0.01) at baseline, treatment type (beta = -0.19, P = 0.05) at 3 months, and JSE at 3 months (beta = 0.57, P = 0.0005) and 6 months (beta = 0.50, P = 0.006). Factors related to being on sick leave were lower levels of JSE (OR = 2.20, 95% CI: 1.17-4.13) at baseline and being employed in a manual occupation (OR = 0.03, 95% CI: 0.00-0.86), and perceived work ability (OR = 3.05, 95% CI: 1.00-12.80) at 6 months. Along with self-assessed work ability at baseline (beta = 0.67, P = 0.0005), receiving chemotherapy or a combination of treatments (beta = -0.24, P = 0.05) were the strongest predictors of poorer perceptions of follow-up work ability. Self-efficacy beliefs may add to understanding and should be considered in future research.