More paid sick leave results in more breast cancer screenings

Breast cancer screening rates in the United States increased up to 4 percent and colorectal cancer screenings increased between 6 percent and 8 percent from 2012 and 2019 where local where paid sick leave was mandated.

The analysis included workers who already had paid sick leave, meaning they were unlikely to decrease or increase cancer screening habits. If the results were scaled to focus only on workers gaining sick leave for the first time via mandates, Kevin Callison (above) of Tulane University and his colleagues estimated that breast cancers screening rates would increase by nine to twelve percent and colorectal screening rates by twenty-one to twenty-nine percent.

For most Americans, the two major obstacles to proper medical care are time and money. And while insurance can sometimes reduce healthcare costs, having time to visit the doctor is just as important.

The U.S. is the only wealthy nation in the world to not federally mandate paid time off for being sick and about one in four American workers can’t take any paid sick day.

• See “More paid sick leave results in more cancer screenings” by Andrew J. Yawn on the Tulane University news website (March 1, 2023)
  
  
• See the abstract of the scientific paper “Cancer Screening after the Adoption of Paid-Sick-Leave Mandates” by Kevin Callison et al.