Factors affecting the quality of life of Korean cancer survivors who return to the workplace.
BACKGROUND
Although the prevalence of cancer is increasing, it is no longer synonymous with death. The number of cancer survivors is estimated to be increasing due to development in medical treatments and social programs; cancer survivors are increasingly returning to work after long-term unemployment. Thus, we examined the quality of life (QOL) and the factors associated with return of cancer survivors to the workplace.


METHODS
This study was performed using the 2008 Community Health Survey administered by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (N=548). We used Chi-square tests to compare demographic variables based on self-perceived health status, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare QOL scores among groups. We also performed a mixed-model analysis of the relationship between QOL and factors at the workplaces of cancer survivors.


RESULTS
Based on the results of our study, the overall QOL of cancer survivors was associated with 'mutual respect', 'free emotional expression', occupation, and age. Moreover, different trends of QOL according to self-perceived health were identified on additional analysis. In the 'bad' self-perceived health group, QOL was significantly different according to income. The QOL of cancer survivors in the low-income group was lower than in the other groups. Conversely, the 'normal' group had a lower QOL caused by 'no mutual respect' and "no free emotional expression" in the workplace. The QOL in the 'good' group based on self-perceived health was higher in the younger age group.


CONCLUSIONS
There may be a significant relationship between QOL and workplace factors for cancer survivors, although further study is needed to investigate this relationship in detail. This may facilitate formulation of policy and efforts to prevent and manage the decline in the QOL of cancer survivors returning to work.
Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea E-mail : leevan@yuhs.ac.
Kyu-Tae
KT
Han
Eun-Cheol
EC
Park
Sun Jung
SJ
Kim
Sung-In
SI
Jang
Jaeyong
J
Shin
Chan Ok
CO
Kim
Jae Woo
JW
Choi
Sang Gyu
SG
Lee
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D011788:Quality of Life; D056910:Republic of Korea; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015996:Survival Rate; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D017132:Workplace