Abstract
ABSTRACTWe investigate the association between pre-cancer job dissatisfaction and return-to-work probability 3 years after a cancer diagnosis. We use a Danish data set combining administrative data and a survey to breast and colon cancer survivors. We find that the return-to-work probability has a negative correlation with pre-cancer job dissatisfaction with mental demands (where the correlation is driven by the high-educated) and with physical demands and the superior (where the correlation is driven by the low-educated). Educational gradients in the probability of returning to work after cancer are not significantly affected by controlling for pre-cancer job dissatisfaction and pre-cancer ability to work.
Highlights
To get cancer is an example of a major health shock which may have important effects on various economic outcomes (e.g. Lee and Kim 2008; GarcíaGómez et al 2013)
The results in regressions (1) and (2) of Table 5, which do not control for ability to work, indicate that pre-cancer job dissatisfaction with mental demands is associated with a reduction in the probability of returning to work by 6 percentage points for the high-educated, whereas dissatisfaction with physical demands and the superior are associated with a reduction in the probability of returning to work by 12 and 14 percentage points, respectively, for the low-educated; the other job dissatisfaction estimates are not statistically significant
It is not surprising that pre-cancer job dissatisfaction with physical demands is more important for the low-educated: Many low-educated have jobs requiring a high level of physical strength, and if physical demands were becoming too hard before cancer, it may be more difficult to return to the same type of job after cancer treatment, since physical strength is often reduced as a consequence of cancer treatment and the disease itself
Summary
To get cancer is an example of a major health shock which may have important effects on various economic outcomes (e.g. Lee and Kim 2008; GarcíaGómez et al 2013). This article explores a potential mechanism which might explain part of the heterogeneity in return-towork probability of cancer survivors, namely precancer job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. One hypothesis might be that cancer survivors who were highly satisfied with the jobs they had before they were diagnosed with cancer may be more inclined to return to work after cancer in spite of the possible negative long-term effects of the cancer treatment and the disease itself on ability to work and health in general. For instance, cancer survivors with a further or higher education were in general more satisfied with their job before they had cancer than those with a lower education this might explain some of the differences between education groups in the probability of being employed after cancer (i.e. it might explain part of the educational gradient). No previous study has focused on whether pre-cancer job (dis)satisfaction is associated with the long-term return-to-work probability of cancer survivors or whether it can explain part of the social gradients in the return-to-work probability, a few papers consider job satisfaction of employed cancer survivors after the diagnosis (Amir et al 2007; Mehnert and Koch 2013a, 2013b)
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