Abstract
BackgroundExperiences of encounters with professionals have been shown to influence return to work (RTW) among sickness absentees in general. The aim was to gain knowledge on experiences of encounters with healthcare professionals and the ability to RTW among women on long-term sickness absence (SA) due to breast cancer (BC) compared to among women on long-term SA due to other diagnoses.MethodsAnalyses of questionnaire data about experiences of encounters with healthcare professionals among 6197 women aged 19–65 years and on a SA spell lasting 4–8 months. Of those, 187 were on SA due to BC. Descriptive statistics and adjusted (for age, birth country, educational level, depressive symptoms) logistic regression analyses with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were conducted.ResultsAbout 95% in both groups of women stated that they had experienced positive encounters with healthcare, and a minority, about 20%, had experienced negative encounters. Four specific types of positive encounters had been experienced to a lesser extent by women with BC: “allowed me to take own responsibility” (odds ratio (OR) 0.6; 95% CI 0.4–0.8), “encouraged me to carry through my own solutions” (OR 0.5; 95% CI 0.4–0.7), “made reasonably high demands” (OR 0.6; 95% CI 0.4–0.9), and “sided with me/stood on my side” (OR 0.6; 95% CI 0.4–0.8). Among the women with BC, 46% stated that positive encounters promoted their ability to RTW compared to 56% among the others. Conclusion: Most of the women had experienced positive encounters and about half stated that positive encounters promoted their ability to RTW, although a slightly smaller proportion of the women with BC stated that. This study emphasizes that not only medical treatment but also encounters may influence the ability to RTW, something that is of clinical importance.
Highlights
Experiences of encounters with professionals have been shown to influence return to work (RTW) among sickness absentees in general
A smaller proportion of the women with breast cancer (BC) reported that they had experienced that healthcare professionals “allowed me to take own responsibility”, “encouraged me to carry through my own solutions”
We found an association between having college or university education and having experienced that positive encounters promoted the ability to RTW among the women with other sickness absence (SA) diagnoses – not in the BC group
Summary
Experiences of encounters with professionals have been shown to influence return to work (RTW) among sickness absentees in general. There are a number of factors, at different structural levels, that have been shown to be associated with RTW among sickness absentees in general [13] One such possible factor is sickness absentees’ experiences of encounters with healthcare professionals [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]. Previous studies of patients on long-term SA have shown that negative encounters from healthcare professionals can make patients feel wronged [16, 23] or influence their RTW [27]. Such knowledge is needed as base for interventions specific for women with BC
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