Work Outcomes in Self-Employed Cancer Survivors

November 27, 2018 at 8:30 AM PT, 11:30 AM ET

Resources:

Presentation Slides

The proportion of people of working age who are diagnosed with cancer is expected to rise in coming years. At the same time, in many western countries, the proportion of people in the workforce who are self-employed is growing. For example, the Europe 2020 strategy encourages European Union member states to promote self-employment as a driver of economic growth.

The past decade has seen an explosion in knowledge about the adverse effects of cancer on people’s working lives. Despite the growing importance of the self-employed as a group, there has been a lack of research investigating the impact of cancer on self-employed people.

The session will present findings from recently published research which bought together several datasets from different European countries to examine work-related outcomes in self-employed cancer survivors. It will discuss: differences between self-employed and salaried cancer survivors; variations across countries; and factors which influence work-related outcomes in self-employed survivors. It will also: review the state of the evidence internationally; highlight evidence gaps and where further research is needed; and discuss challenges in conducting research on this largely neglected population.

You will learn:

How cancer affects the working life of those who are self-employed
How patterns of work participation, and health outcomes, after cancer differ between salaried workers and the self-employed
What factors influence work participation following a cancer diagnosis
That self-employed cancer survivors may experience poorer work-related outcomes or health outcomes than salaried survivors
How national social welfare provisions may drive work engagement following a cancer diagnosis, especially in people who are self-employed
That self-employed people consider the needs of their business as well as their health needs after a cancer diagnosis
The areas where further research is needed
What issues need to be considered in developing interventions/strategies to support work engagement after cancer in people who are self-employed

Hosted by

Linda Sharp, PhD

Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, Institute of Health & Society at Newcastle University, UK

Linda Sharp is a Professor of Cancer Epidemiology at Newcastle University in the UK. She has been conducting research in cancer survivorship for more than 12 years. Workforce participation after a cancer diagnosis is one of her major interests. She has led a range of qualitative, epidemiological and economic studies which have examined different aspects of this issue and has published widely on this topic. She is a leading member of the EU Cancer and Work Network (CANWON)