This study seeks to assess the impact of breast cancer on survivors' annual income at 1 to 13 years of follow-up.
A Norwegian registry-based dataset with a 13-year follow-up period was used. The dataset contained case-control pairs, where each pair consisted of one breast cancer case and a cancer-free control, matched for age, marital status, and municipality of residence. A mixed linear model was used to analyse the average income development for cases and controls adjusting for available demographic variables not used in the matching procedure, such as education level, immigration history, and number of children. Individual income was only considered relevant for cancer survivors, thus case-control pairs were censored upon death. Income development by stage of tumour at time of diagnosis was also assessed.
The income of breast cancer survivors had reduced immediately following diagnosis. At 1 year after diagnosis, income development between cases and controls became significantly different (p?=?0.006). Differences increased slightly but remained significant throughout the follow-up period. At 13 years after diagnosis, the estimated cumulative income loss for survivors was 39.403 € (p?