Job Satisfaction and Related Factors of Patients with Breast, Colorectal, and Lung Cancer or Lymphoma Who Have Survived and Being Followed in Remission

Abstract

Aim: Studies on cancer and work life have shown that an increasing number of cancer survivors were able to return to work after their treatment. Many factors associated with employment and impaired work ability were defined. Nevertheless, rare studies evaluated the job satisfaction of the employees. This pilot study aims to evaluate the job satisfaction levels and factors affecting job satisfaction of cancer survivors. Material and Method: The study was designed as a cross-sectional survey in a university hospital. The short-form Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) Turkish version was administered during face-to-face interviews to the cancer survivors in complete remission who had returned to work after their treatment. The SPSS 15 for Windows was used for the analyses. Results: Sixty patients were evaluated. The Median MSQ score of the study population was 74 (22-95). Low MSQ score in 1 (1.7%), intermediate MSQ scores in 30 (50%) and high MSQ scores in 29 (48.3%) patients were recorded. The analysis of factors associated with MSQ scores showed that high school/university education patients were less satisfied with their jobs. There was no statistically significant difference in the analysis of sex, marital status, residence, duration of disease, and treatment modalities. The analysis of patients' subjective satisfaction with jobs showed that 6 (10%) patients were not satisfied before the disease process, and 13 (21.7%) patients were not satisfied after returning to work. Patients who returned to the same workplace were more satisfied [75 (29-95) vs. 64 (22-78) vs., p=0.03] than those who changed workplaces. Patients who had subjectively better/similar working conditions after returning to work were more satisfied than those who had worse [75 (38-95) vs. 58 (22-83), p=0.03]. Multivariate analysis revealed that high school/university education [OR=0.115 (0.022-0.601), p= 0.010] was independently associated with worse job satisfaction. Conclusion: It was determined that the cancer survivors experienced moderate levels of job satisfaction. Cancer survivors with various types of cancer have different individual physical and emotional characteristics that influence their decision to return to work.