Employment and Labor Force Participation Among Prostate Cancer Survivors

Diagnosis and treatment of cancer may impair patients' ability to continue to work. We assessed the impact of a prior prostate cancer diagnosis on employment and labor force participation.

Using the National Health Interview Surveys for 2010 to 2018, we identified sample adults previously diagnosed with prostate cancer aged <65 years (prostate cancer survivors) who were currently or previously employed. We matched each prostate survivor to comparison sample adults based on age, race/ethnicity, education level, and survey year. We compared employment-related outcomes between prostate cancer survivors and comparison males, overall and as a function of time since diagnosis, and other respondent characteristics.

The final sample had 571 prostate cancer survivors and 2,849 matched comparison males. The proportions of survivors and comparison males who were employed (ie, worked for pay in the week prior to the survey) were similar (60.4% and 60.6%; adjusted difference 0.6 [95% CI: -5.2 to 6.3]), as were labor force participation rates (67.3% vs 67.3%; adjusted difference 0.7 [95% CI: -4.7 to 6.1]). Survivors were slightly more likely to be not working due to disability (16.7% vs 13.3%; adjusted difference 2.7 [95% CI: -1.2 to 6.5]), though the difference was not significant. Survivors had more bed days than comparison males (8.0 vs 5.7; adjusted difference 2.8 [95% CI: 2.0 to 3.6]) and missed more workdays (7.4 vs 3.3; adjusted difference 4.5 [95% CI: 3.6 to 5.3]).

Employment rates were similar between prostate cancer survivors and matched comparison males, though survivors missed work more often.