Cognitive changes after breast cancer: a scoping review to identify problems encountered by women when returning to work

Cognitive functioning and work-related outcomes of non-central nervous system cancer survivors: protocol for a systematic review with meta-analysis

“…The authors will search for articles from January 2000 onwards, considering that CRCI began to be recognised around this date. 25 …”

“…The authors will search for articles from January 2000 onwards, considering that CRCI began to be recognised around this date. 25 Open access following six electronic databases will be searched for the relevant publications: Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, ProQuest, PsycINFO and CINAHL (through EBSCOhost). Searches in these databases will be complemented by a manual search of the reference lists of other relevant and key publications related to CRCI and work-related outcomes in cancer survivors (eg, systematic reviews excluded at title/abstract stage, studies mentioned in screened and/or included articles) to include any additional studies not previously identified and to ensure saturation of data.…”

“…The latest model was developed by Mehnert et al 22 and corresponds to a cancer survivorship and work model adapted from Feuerstein et al 16 and Mehnert, 14 considering several work-related outcomes, such as employment/return to work, work ability, work performance, job opportunities, income, work satisfaction, job promotion and training, and sustainability. Nevertheless, since the publication of these theoretical models, a growing body of research has been developed to study the relationship between CRCI and work-related outcomes, including some reviews to systematise studies' findings, [23][24][25][26] considering that many occupationally active survivors identify these symptoms as very problematic and bothersome. 18 Von Ah et al 23 were the first to explore the impact of cognitive impairment on work outcomes in 2016.…”

“…The primary outcome of this work is the relationship between cognitive functioning (subjective or objective, assessed through self-report questionnaires and by neuropsychological tests, respectively) and work-related outcomes (assessed through self-report questionnaires or 4 38 39 The Work Limitations Questionnaire and the Work Ability Index are two examples of the most commonly used self-report validated measures to assess work-related outcomes; other outcomes are more frequently reported from the patient's perspective (eg, absenteeism, return to work, working hours). [23][24][25][26] Secondary outcomes, such as anxiety and depression, fatigue and sleep (measured with self-reported instruments, for instance, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the EORTC QLQ-C30, respectively 26 ), age, type of cancer and type of treatment (as presented in demographic and clinical characterisation of the sample), will also be considered.…”

“…Findings were inconsistent across studies: studies measuring cognitive functioning with objective neuropsychological tests found no association with work-related outcomes, while results of studies using self-reported measures of cognitive functioning were ambiguous. Lewis and Mackenzie 25 performed a scoping review, aiming to identify what is known about how cognitive changes impact work ability or performance for women with breast cancer. Although discrepancies were found between results from neuropsychological testing and self-report measures, breast cancer survivors can experience challenges in their employment due to cognitive deficits, which may lead to the loss of their employment.…”