Job Absence High After Breast Cancer Found

A study at Laval University in Quebec indicates women recently diagnosed with breast cancer are likely to be absent from their jobs.

Dr. Melanie Drolet and colleagues found that compared with matched health control women, women with breast cancer who remained free of the disease for at least 3 years after diagnosis were much more likely than healthy women to be absent from work for four or more weeks — 85 percent vs. 18 percent.

However, by the third year post-diagnosis, work absence patterns were similar.

Some of the absences exceeded the 15-week federal employment insurance available during periods of illness. The shorter patterns of work absence among the self-employed and those who were single may represent expressions of the financial burden of the common illness, the researchers wrote.

The study appears in the Sept. 27 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.