Impact of workplace accommodations on long-term work outcomes in a diverse sample of breast cancer survivors.

501 Background: Low-income and racial/ethnic minority workers in the US have limited access to work accommodations, such as schedule flexibility, if they become ill. Access to such accommodations is a key predictor of work status immediately after treatment for breast cancer. We evaluated the impact of accommodations on long-term work outcomes in a demographically diverse cohort of breast cancer survivors. Methods: We surveyed pre-diagnosis employed women, aged 18-64, who spoke Chinese, English, Korean, or Spanish and were undergoing treatment for stage I-III breast cancer in New York City. Recruitment was enriched for racial/ethnic minority and immigrant status. Surveys were administered (telephone or online) during treatment (baseline) and 4 months after completion of primary therapy. Long-term work status was evaluated in brief surveys 1 and 2 years later. The primary outcome was post-treatment work status (working full- or part-time vs. any other work status). We used X 2 and Fisher's Exact Tests to examine associations between participant characteristics and work status, and logistic regression to adjust for relevant characteristics in multivariable analyses. Results: From 06/2012 to 08/2018, 497 participants completed baseline surveys; 479 completed 4-month post-treatment surveys, and 401 and 387 reported on their work status 1 and 2 years later. Overall, 22% self-identified as Black, 22% Chinese, 7.1% Korean, 27% Latina, 19% non-Latina white, and 2.7% as other; 58% were born outside of the US. Post-treatment work status remained relatively stable over time: 29% were not working 4 months after treatment completion, and 26% and 25% were not working 1 and 2 years later. Non-Latina white women were most likely to be working after treatment completion (89%), followed by Korean (74%), Black (73%), Chinese (69%), and Latina women (61%; overall p<0.001). Similar trends were observed 1 and 2 years later. Participants who reported that their employer had been accommodating in their 4-month post-treatment survey were more likely to be working 4 months after completion of treatment (83% vs. 57% of those with unaccommodating employers, p<0.001) and 1 year (85% vs. 60%, p<0.001) and 2 years later (84% vs. 65%, p<0.001). The relationship between employer accommodations and post-treatment work status across all time points remained significant after controlling for age, race/ethnicity, language, household income as a % of the Federal Poverty Level, job type, and receipt of chemotherapy. Conclusions: In this diverse cohort of breast cancer survivors, relative to work status 4 months post-treatment, work status was relatively stable 1 and 2 years later. Women whose employers had been accommodating during treatment were more likely to be working 1 and 2 years later. Increasing access to accommodations could improve long-term work outcomes and abrogate disparities in patients who undergo cancer therapy.