Predictors of return to work among postoperative patients with colorectal cancer.

Objective: To describe the status of return to work and identify predictors of return to work among Chinese postoperative patients with colorectal cancer.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: Conducted in two tertiary hospitals in China.

Participants: A total of 210 postoperative patients with colorectal cancer were included in the study.

Main measures: Two hundred and ten postoperative patients with colorectal cancer who were working at the time of their diagnosis were assessed with the Perceived Social Support Scale, the Return-To-Work Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, Cancer Fatigue Scale, and Social Impact Scale. Descriptive statistics, univariate logistic regression analysis, and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used for data analysis in SPSS 26.0.

Results: Around a third of participants (n = 74, 35.2%) returned to work after surgery. Multiple stepwise regression analysis indicated that more family income (odds ratio (OR) = 5.769, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.666-19.972), time span after surgery 5-10 months, and ≥10 months (OR = 3.546, 95% CI = 1.084-11.598; OR = 3.077, 95% CI = 1.074-8.818), with a stoma (OR = 0.221, 95% CI = 0.075-0.653), psychological distress (OR = 0.912, 95% CI = 0.843-0.987), cancer fatigue (OR = 0.924, 95% CI = 0.872-0.978), and stigma (OR = 0.928, 95% CI = 0.886-0.971) were significantly associated with return to work.

Conclusions: A high proportion of patients with colorectal cancer did not return to work within 1 year after diagnosis. Those with shorter postoperative time, lower family income, stoma, greater psychological stress, higher level of cancer fatigue, and more stigma may have a higher risk in delayed work resumption.