{"title":"Multiple myeloma in people of working age in Czechia, Germany, and Poland: findings from a qualitative interview study.","authors":"Liz Forbat","doi":"10.1007/s11764-023-01510-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The study sought to understand the experiences of working age adults with myeloma and their partner/family members, living in Czechia, Germany, and Poland.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Qualitative interviews were conducted with 36 working age adults living with myeloma, and three family members. Data were collected from May to October 2022. Thematic analysis was applied to the data.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Healthcare and state support within each country are described. The degree of work engagement was informed by patients' symptom burden, treatment needs, state financial aid, and family/financial obligations. Many did not conceptualise their status as involving 'return to work' as they had continued to be engaged with their jobs throughout. For some, remote working enabled them to manage treatments/side-effects and their job, while avoiding infection. In some cases, patients did not tell their employer or colleagues about their illness, for fear of discrimination.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>While experiences varied between countries, common across accounts was a struggle to balance ongoing treatments with employment, at a time when participants were expected to finance their own households and maintain their income and roles. Implications for Cancer Survivors To improve quality of life, clinical discussions around treatment decision-making should take into account patients' attitudes/approach to work, type of work engaged in, and other activities considered important to them. European Union and national cancer plans should set out optimum standards for employers, to ensure an equitable benchmark for how employees are supported. Such approaches would improve legal protections and better enforcement of employer policies to accommodate patients' limitations in the workplace.</p>","PeriodicalId":15284,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cancer Survivorship","volume":" ","pages":"884-894"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12081521/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Cancer Survivorship","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01510-1","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/12/20 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ONCOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: The study sought to understand the experiences of working age adults with myeloma and their partner/family members, living in Czechia, Germany, and Poland.
Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 36 working age adults living with myeloma, and three family members. Data were collected from May to October 2022. Thematic analysis was applied to the data.
Results: Healthcare and state support within each country are described. The degree of work engagement was informed by patients' symptom burden, treatment needs, state financial aid, and family/financial obligations. Many did not conceptualise their status as involving 'return to work' as they had continued to be engaged with their jobs throughout. For some, remote working enabled them to manage treatments/side-effects and their job, while avoiding infection. In some cases, patients did not tell their employer or colleagues about their illness, for fear of discrimination.
Conclusion: While experiences varied between countries, common across accounts was a struggle to balance ongoing treatments with employment, at a time when participants were expected to finance their own households and maintain their income and roles. Implications for Cancer Survivors To improve quality of life, clinical discussions around treatment decision-making should take into account patients' attitudes/approach to work, type of work engaged in, and other activities considered important to them. European Union and national cancer plans should set out optimum standards for employers, to ensure an equitable benchmark for how employees are supported. Such approaches would improve legal protections and better enforcement of employer policies to accommodate patients' limitations in the workplace.
期刊介绍:
Cancer survivorship is a worldwide concern. The aim of this multidisciplinary journal is to provide a global forum for new knowledge related to cancer survivorship. The journal publishes peer-reviewed papers relevant to improving the understanding, prevention, and management of the multiple areas related to cancer survivorship that can affect quality of care, access to care, longevity, and quality of life. It is a forum for research on humans (both laboratory and clinical), clinical studies, systematic and meta-analytic literature reviews, policy studies, and in rare situations case studies as long as they provide a new observation that should be followed up on to improve outcomes related to cancer survivors. Published articles represent a broad range of fields including oncology, primary care, physical medicine and rehabilitation, many other medical and nursing specialties, nursing, health services research, physical and occupational therapy, public health, behavioral medicine, psychology, social work, evidence-based policy, health economics, biobehavioral mechanisms, and qualitative analyses. The journal focuses exclusively on adult cancer survivors, young adult cancer survivors, and childhood cancer survivors who are young adults. Submissions must target those diagnosed with and treated for cancer.