Purpose: Most women are diagnosed with breast cancer when they are of working age. How long are breast cancer patients absent? How many of them return to work?
Methods: ArboNed Occupational Health Services documents sickness absence data of 1 million workers of whom 40% were women. Between 2001 and 2005, 2,259 women had 2,361 episodes of sickness absence due to breast cancer. These absence episodes were followed for 2 years using Kaplan-Meier analysis.
Results: The mean +/- standard error of mean duration of absence due to breast cancer was 349 +/- 5 days. Thirty-seven percent of absences lasted longer than one year and 12% of absences lasted longer than 2 years particularly in women aged 25-34 years.
Conclusions: The mean duration of sickness absence due to breast cancer was nearly a year, but most women returned to work. The results of the study can be used as a reference for return to work of women following breast cancer.