Perspectives of Italian Employers Regarding the Return to Work Process of Employees Who Received a Cancer Diagnosis: a Qualitative Study

Overview

European Cancer Mission calls attention to the return to work (RTW) of cancer survivors (CSs), as one of the pivotal issues of the cancer continuum that need to be addressed through proper and prompt actions and recommendations. Employers are important stakeholders, as they can provide emotional and practical support, sustain communication during the entire process, and guarantee a gradual work reintegration. In Italy there is lack of knowledge regarding this topic. Thus, further exploration of Italian employers' perspectives on the RTW of employees with cancer should be performed to comprehend their unknown experiences. The aim is to explore the perspectives of employers who dealt with the RTW process of employees who received a cancer diagnosis through a qualitative research design.

Detailed description

Data collection will be performed through individual semi-structured interviews. Each interview will last around 60 minutes, and it can be arranged in person or remotely, depending on the participant's preference. Socio-demographic data, expertise of the employer, and company-related data will be collected through a semi-structured interview.

Experiences of employers will be collected through open-ended questions using an interview guide that was written based on the one used by Tiedtke et al., 2017, by adding some questions related to the facilitators and barriers perceived by employers during the sickness absence and RTW of employee with cancer.

The open-ended questions will concern general information about the company, employers' experience after cancer disclosure and during sick leave, employers' experience to sustain the RTW process and the long-term work reintegration, and the influence of the experience on the company.

Each interview will be audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed according to the thematic analysis method using an inductive approach with open coding.

Analysis will be iterative and involve multiple researchers to ensure inter-rater reliability of the coding procedure and the methodological rigor of the analysis.

Themes generated will be discussed with Dutch researchers from the Amsterdam University Medical Centers.

Analyses will be carried out at the end of each interview because, based on the themes that will emerge from each interview, we will understand when to stop recruiting.

Primary outcome measures

• 1. Open-ended questions of a semi-structured interview to collect the employers experience of the management of the RTW process [Time frame: 12 months]
• Open-ended questions of a semi-structured interview to collect the employers' necessities while supporting the RTW process [Time frame: 12 months]
• Open-ended questions of a semi-structured interview to collect the employers perceived barriers and facilitators while supporting the RTW process [Time frame: 12 months]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• employers\* of a company
• being directly involved in managing the RTW process of at least one employee with cancer diagnosis in the last 5 years.

• An employer can be the specific person who represents the company where the employee was working at the time of cancer diagnosis or a person who supported the employee during the sickness absence and the RTW process (e.g., line manager, human resource manager).

Exclusion criteria

• none

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Observational model

Cohort

Study locations

Italy · 1 center

• Azienda USL IRCCS di Reggio Emilia — Reggio Emilia

Publications

• Greidanus MA, de Boer AGEM, de Rijk AE, Tiedtke CM, Dierckx de Casterle B, Frings-Dresen MHW, Tamminga SJ. Perceived employer-related barriers and facilitators for work participation of cancer survivors: A systematic review of employers' and survivors' perspectives. Psychooncology. 2018 Mar;27(3):725-733. doi: 10.1002/pon.4514. Epub 2017 Sep 6. PMID 28753741
• Lawler M, De Lorenzo F, Lagergren P, Mennini FS, Narbutas S, Scocca G, Meunier F; European Academy of Cancer Sciences. Challenges and solutions to embed cancer survivorship research and innovation within the EU Cancer Mission. Mol Oncol. 2021 Jul;15(7):1750-1758. doi: 10.1002/1878-0261.13022. Epub 2021 Jun 15. PMID 34053182
• Paltrinieri S, Fugazzaro S, Bertozzi L, Bassi MC, Pellegrini M, Vicentini M, Mazzini E, Costi S. Return to work in European Cancer survivors: a systematic review. Support Care Cancer. 2018 Sep;26(9):2983-2994. doi: 10.1007/s00520-018-4270-6. Epub 2018 May 29. PMID 29845421
• de Rijk A, Amir Z, Cohen M, Furlan T, Godderis L, Knezevic B, Miglioretti M, Munir F, Popa AE, Sedlakova M, Torp S, Yagil D, Tamminga S, de Boer A. The challenge of return to work in workers with cancer: employer priorities despite variation in social policies related to work and health. J Cancer Surviv. 2020 Apr;14(2):188-199. doi: 10.1007/s11764-019-00829-y. Epub 2019 Nov 22. PMID 31758518
• Tiedtke CM, Dierckx de Casterle B, Frings-Dresen MHW, De Boer AGEM, Greidanus MA, Tamminga SJ, De Rijk AE. Employers' experience of employees with cancer: trajectories of complex communication. J Cancer Surviv. 2017 Oct;11(5):562-577. doi: 10.1007/s11764-017-0626-z. Epub 2017 Jul 14. PMID 28710544

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06994182 · 632/2024/OSS/AUSLRE

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗