This systematic review offers an extensive overview of issues that might contribute to the QWL of employees with a chronic physical disease. This overview may function as a starting point for occupational support, such as monitoring and evaluating the QWL of employees with a chronic physical disease during return-to-work and work continuation processes.
PurposeThe aim of this study was to generate, and select quality of working life issues for the development of an initial version of the Quality of Working Life Questionnaire for Cancer Survivors (QWLQ-CS).MethodsQuality of working life issues were generated through focus groups with cancer survivors and oncological occupational physicians, and interviews with employers, supervisors, and organization officers. A selection of these quality of working life issues was made based on relevance and importance by conducting an online questionnaire among the cancer survivors and oncological occupational physicians. Researchers formulated the issues into items for the QWLQ-CS.ResultsA total of 24 cancer survivors, six oncological occupational physicians and 11 employers, supervisors, and organization officers participated. The 222 quality of working life issues identified through the focus groups, interviews, and literature were converted into an online questionnaire. Cancer survivors (N = 20) found 44 issues not relevant or important with respect to their quality of working life. The researchers reviewed the remaining 178 issues and formulated them into 102 items classified by five categories: work perception, job characteristics, the social structure and environment, organizational characteristics, and the effect of the disease and treatment.ConclusionsThe initial version of the QWLQ-CS exists out of 102 items which cover the experiences and perceptions of cancer survivors in the work environment. All items were indicated by working cancer survivors as relevant and important.Implications for cancer survivorsThis initial version of the QWLQ-CS may increase awareness of the potential problems or emotional difficulties working cancer survivors face during the work continuation process.
BackgroundTo assess the factorial structure, internal consistency, construct validity and reproducibility of the Quality of Working Life Questionnaire for Cancer Survivors (QWLQ-CS).MethodsAn Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed on QWLQ-CS data from a sample of employed cancer survivors to establish the final number of items and factorial structure of the QWLQ-CS. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. In a second sample of (self-)employed cancer survivors, construct validity was tested by convergent validity (correlations of QWLQ-CS with construct-related questionnaires), and discriminative validity (difference in QWLQ-CS scores between cancer survivors and employed people without cancer). In a subgroup of stable cancer survivors subtracted from the second sample, reproducibility was evaluated by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Standard Error of Measurement (SEM).ResultsEFA on QWLQ-CS data of 302 cancer survivors resulted in 23 items and five factors. The internal consistency of the QWLQ-CS was Cronbach’s α = 0.91. Convergent validity on data of 130 cancer survivors resulted in r = 0.61–0.70. QWLQ-CS scores of these cancer survivors statistically differed (p = 0.04) from employed people without cancer (N = 45). Reproducibility of QWLQ-CS data from 87 cancer survivors demonstrated an ICC of 0.84 and a SEM of 9.59.ConclusionsThe five-factor QWLQ-CS with 23 items and adequate internal consistency, construct validity, and reproducibility at group level can be used in clinical and occupational healthcare, and research settings.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-017-3966-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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