Abstract 3405
Background
Each year, 355,000 new individuals are diagnosed with cancer in France, nearly half of them being in working age and interrupting their professional occupation during treatments. As having working arrangements has been found to facilitate return to work after a long absence, it is provided by French law. This study aims to describe the use of working arrangements and to investigate how it is related to job retention.
Methods
This study combines analyses of quantitative and qualitative data: 1) VICAN5, a national representative survey on living conditions 5 years after cancer diagnosis conducted in 2015-2016 (n = 4,174), and 2) CAREMAJOB, a qualitative longitudinal study carried out in 2017 among patients on sick leave after a cancer diagnosis and interviewed about the impact of the disease on their working lives (n = 21). VICAN5 survey presents an overview about the use of working arrangements in France and the CAREMAJOB survey completes these results by giving the patients’ point of view in a more comprehensive manner.
Results
Among the 1,854 cancer survivors aged between 23 and 59 at time of the VICAN survey, and who were employed at diagnosis, 62.7% used working arrangement(s) within the five years following diagnosis. Nearly half of them (45.5%) had a working time arrangement. The other kind of working changes were about working hours (38.8%), working conditions (35.8%), occupation (32.8%), workplace (20.4%), and security at work (19.2%). Moreover, working arrangements are associated with job retention (88.9% of workers with working arrangement were still employed five years after diagnosis versus 69.6% of others). Furthermore, in CAREMAJOB survey, when patient returned to work without any working arrangement, this led to bad experience because of workload. However, some of those who did have an arrangement reported a negative impact on their professional life: they felt discriminated or thought that it has affected their professional credibility.
Conclusions
In the French context, the use of working arrangement seems to be a good factor to enhance job retention. National surveys should however better take into account the context of the implementation of working arrangement to get better understanding of the potential selection bias.
Clinical trial identification
Legal entity responsible for the study
INSERM, UMR_S 1252, « Sciences Economiques & Sociales de la Santé et Traitement de l\'Information Médicale » (SESSTIM).
Funding
Canceropole PACA Institut National du Cancer (INCA).
Editorial Acknowledgement
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.