Is time a gift for health and life satisfaction? Exploring the relationship between time allocation and adaptation to a breast cancer diagnosis

Ni Gao, Mark Harris, Mandy Ryan, Suzanne Robinson and Richard Norman

Social Science & Medicine, 2025, vol. 371, issue C

Abstract: Existing studies on adaptation to health shocks primarily focus on whether health and well-being return to baseline levels over time. However, little is known about the factors associated with the extent of adaptation. This study examines how patterns of time use across daily activities relate to the extent of adaptation. Focusing on women diagnosed with breast cancer, with women without a cancer diagnosis as a comparison, we apply an event study design to examine whether time spent on paid work and physical leisure are associated with varying degrees of adaptation, measured by self-reported health status and life satisfaction. Our findings suggest that full-time paid work and more than 10 h of physical leisure per week at baseline are associated with slower and less complete adaptation in the domain of self-reported health. Conversely, the degree of adaptation in the domain of life satisfaction does not significantly vary based on baseline levels of paid work and physical leisure. Furthermore, a reduction in time allocated to paid work or physical leisure following a cancer diagnosis is associated with slower adaptation in the domain of self-reported health compared to maintaining pre-diagnosis levels. These findings suggest an interplay between pre- and post-diagnosis time allocation that warrants further investigation.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117910

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