Table 1.
Patients’ baseline characteristics
| Patient characteristics | Intervention group N = 42* |
Control group N = 46* |
p value** | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sociodemographic | |||||
| Age (years) | 54 | ± 7.7 | 56 | ± 6.6 | 0.26 |
| Gender (% male) | 64% | 67% | 0.76 | ||
| Marital status | |||||
| Married/cohabiting | 33 | 39 | 0.27 | ||
| Single | 8 | 4 | |||
| Divorced/widowed | 1 | 3 | |||
| Main wage earner | |||||
| Yes | 19 | 21 | 0.90 | ||
| No, my partner is | 3 | 4 | |||
| Equal with partner | 18 | 17 | |||
| Gross monthly income | |||||
| ≤ €1000 | 1 | 2 | 0.89 | ||
| €1001–€2000 | 9 | 11 | |||
| €2001–€3000 | 15 | 20 | |||
| €3001–€4000 | 6 | 4 | |||
| ≥ €4001 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Educational attainment | |||||
| Low | 9 | 15 | 0.46 | ||
| Intermediate | 17 | 15 | |||
| High | 16 | 15 | |||
| Clinical characteristics | |||||
| Cancer diagnosis | |||||
| Stomach | – | 1 | 0.61 | ||
| Liver | 1 | 1 | |||
| Gallbladder | – | 1 | |||
| Small intestine | 1 | – | |||
| Colon | 30 | 28 | |||
| Rectal | 7 | 11 | |||
| Pancreatic | 2 | 4 | |||
| Anal | 1 | – | |||
| Treatment (T1 3 months)*** | |||||
| None | 0 | 1 | 0.32 | ||
| Surgery (S) | 18 | 21 | |||
| Chemotherapy (CT) | 2 | 0 | |||
| Radiotherapy (RT) | 1 | 0 | |||
| Combination (S-CT-RT) | 21 | 16 | |||
| Work-related characteristics | |||||
| Occupational sector | |||||
| Healthcare/education | 11 | 5 | 0.08 | ||
| Administrative | – | 6 | |||
| Sales | 3 | 1 | |||
| Industry/transport/logistics | 8 | 12 | |||
| Business services | 13 | 14 | |||
| Other | 7 | 8 | |||
| Years in current function | 16.4 | ± 11.5 | 17.35 | ± 11 | 0.70 |
| Years in paid work | 31.3 | ± 11 | 32.8 | ± 9.9 | 0.50 |
| Employment status | |||||
| Permanent | 30 | 41 | 0.19 | ||
| Temporary | 3 | 1 | |||
| Self-employed | 6 | 3 | |||
| Hours under current contract (per week) | 37 | 10.8 | 35 | 9.3 | 0.49 |
| Physical workload**** | |||||
| VBBA Score 0–28 | 4.3 | ± 5.1 | 4.9 | ± 4.6 | 0.56 |
| Importance of work**** | |||||
| Score 0–100 | 51.6 | ± 29.5 | 47.7 | ± 29.2 | 0.53 |
| Reconsider importance of work | |||||
| No | 30 | 71% | 27 | 60% | 0.26 |
| Support from family and friends | |||||
| No, no need of | 16 | 17 | 0.56 | ||
| No, but need it | 1 | – | |||
| Yes, I have this support | 25 | 29 | |||
| Support from work environment | |||||
| No, no need of | 4 | 10 | 0.15 | ||
| No, but need it | 2 | 5 | |||
| Yes, I have this support | 35 | 31 | |||
| Health-related characteristics | |||||
| Fatigue (general)**** | |||||
| MFI Score 0–20 | 12 | ± 5.1 | 11.9 | ± 5.1 | 0.91 |
| Depression**** | |||||
| CESD Score 0–60 | 12.1 | ± 9.9 | 11.4 | ± 9.1 | 0.74 |
| Cognitive functioning**** | |||||
| CSCW-DW Score 0–100 | 21 | ± 15.5 | 27.1 | ± 18.8 | 0.1 |
* Due to missing values or rounding differences, numbers may approach the total N and 100%
**Continuous variables mean ± standard deviation l Nominal and ordinal variables (N) with percentages. Student’s t test for continuous variables and χ2 test for ordinal and nominal variables
***Treatments are presented at T1 (3 month) because patients were included at the moment of diagnosis and therefore not available at T0
****The higher the score, the higher the level of physical workload, importance of work, fatigue, feelings of depression, and cognitive functioning problems