Increasing work ability in breast cancer survivors through perceived emotional intelligence

Resumen

Even though breast cancer is the neoplasia more frequent among women, its mortality risk has beenreduced to 38% in recent decades mainly due to advances in treatments and early detection programs.As a result, the research in the biomedical field has set as a primary goal to prolong disease-free time,enhance patient survival, and maintain patient quality of life. However, participation in society afterBC is generally negatively affected and many women are not able to return to work.Our research team is committed to improving the quality of life of these survivors by promoting workability through the development of perceived emotional intelligence (PEI). In this sense, our findingshave evidenced that PEI may have a positive impact on the work ability of breast cancer survivorsin three ways. i) Through a direct effect. High values of emotional clarity and mood repair increasework ability. ii) Through resilience given its association with WA. High values of emotional clarityand mood repair increase resilience in breast cancer patients.iii) Through an indirect effect. Breast cancer survivors who display higher mood repair values wouldhave higher work ability levels.Despite this, the ability to work can also be diminished due to the direct impact of high levels of emotional attention reducing both resilience and work ability.Hence, these results provide empirical support regarding the PEI dimensions that positively influencebreast cancer survivors’ adjustment to working life and can help to the development of interventionsto restore working ability in this population expanding knowledge regarding their recovery process.Finally, our findings highlight the need to individually address each dimension of PEI to avoid unwanted effects on the return to work among breast cancer survivors.