Objectives: To (1) describe the prevalence of work- or school-related distress among patients with cancer and (2) compare overall distress among those impacted at work or school to overall distress among those not impacted at work or school.
Design: Retrospective chart review.
Participants: All patients visiting the study site March 2016-December 2020 who completed the NCCN Distress Thermometer and Problem List.
Methods: Descriptive statistics examined work- or school-related distress across patient characteristics and compared mean Distress Thermometer scores between patients with and without work- or school-related distress.
Findings: Among 1,760 unique patients, 7.5% reported work- or school-related distress at one or more visits. Rates were highest among patients seen for neurological (14.1%), skin (10.6%), and gastrointestinal (9.2%) cancers. Those reporting work- or school-related distress had higher overall distress scores (mean = 4.76; SD = 2.52) than others (mean = 3.37; SD = 2.92) (g=-0.482; t=-5.327, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Although the prevalence of work- or school-related distress was low in this sample, the magnitude of this distress emphasizes the importance of having effective resources available for patients with cancer who experience work- or school-related problems.
Implications: More research is needed to understand how well distress screening processes identify and support patients with work- or school-related problems.
Keywords: cancer; distress thermometer; employment; oncology; school.