Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2M7, Canada.
BC Cancer Agency, Patient & Family Counseling, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1G1, Canada.
Curr Oncol. 2023 Apr 29;30(5):4586-4602. doi: 10.3390/curroncol30050347.
Self-employed individuals with cancer face unique challenges that have not been fully explored in previous research. For example, while some studies conducted in Europe have suggested that self-employed workers with cancer experience more adverse health and work-related outcomes compared to salaried workers, the specific manners in which cancer affects the health, work, and businesses of self-employed individuals remain inadequately understood. This lack of understanding represents a crucial gap in the literature, as self-employed individuals make up a significant portion of the workforce in many countries, including Canada. To address this gap, a qualitative interpretive description study was undertaken to explore the experiences of 23 self-employed Canadians diagnosed with cancer from six provinces, with the aim of generating insights into the unique challenges faced by this population. The interviews were conducted in the language chosen by the participants from the two official languages of Canada, namely English and French. Using reflexive thematic analysis, four major themes and twelve subthemes were generated from the participants' shared accounts that reflected the impact of cancer on self-employed Canadians' physical, cognitive, and psychological function, affecting their work ability and their ability to maintain their business and financial well-being. Participants in the study also shared strategies they used to continue working and maintain their business during their cancer experience. This study sheds light on the impact of cancer on self-employed individuals and provides insight into the experiences of self-employed individuals with cancer that can inform the development of interventions to support this population.
自主就业的癌症患者面临着独特的挑战，这些挑战在以前的研究中并未得到充分探讨。例如，尽管欧洲的一些研究表明，与受薪工人相比，患有癌症的自主就业者经历了更多的健康和与工作相关的不良后果，但癌症如何影响自主就业者的健康、工作和企业的具体方式仍未被充分理解。这种理解上的不足代表了文献中的一个重要缺口，因为在许多国家，包括加拿大，自主就业者在劳动力中占很大比例。为了填补这一空白，进行了一项定性解释性描述研究，以探讨来自六个省份的 23 名被诊断患有癌症的加拿大自主就业者的经历，旨在深入了解这一人群所面临的独特挑战。访谈是用参与者从加拿大的两种官方语言，即英语和法语中选择的语言进行的。通过反思性主题分析，从参与者的共同叙述中生成了四个主要主题和十二个子主题，反映了癌症对加拿大自主就业者身体、认知和心理功能的影响，影响了他们的工作能力和维持企业和财务健康的能力。研究参与者还分享了他们在癌症经历中继续工作和维持企业的策略。这项研究揭示了癌症对自主就业者的影响，并深入了解了患有癌症的自主就业者的经历，这些经历可以为支持这一人群的干预措施的制定提供信息。
