Hospital Contacts for Psychiatric Disorders in Parents of Children With Cancer in Denmark

Mader, Luzius; Frederiksen, Line Elmerdahl; Bidstrup, Pernille Envold; Hargreave, Marie; Kjær, Susanne K.; Kuehni, Claudia E.; Nielsen, Thomas Tjørnelund; Krøyer, Anja; Winther, Jeanette Falck; Erdmann, Friederike

doi:10.1093/jncics/pkab036

Cited by 9 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Both survey-based (Rosenberg et al, 2013) and register-based evidence (Salem et al, 2019;Mader et al, 2021) suggest that child cancer causes enormous stress for parents. This in turn could affect the probability of union dissolution.…”

Section: S-8mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender inequality reinforced: the impact of a child's health shock on parents' labor market trajectories

Vaalavuo¹,

Salokangas²,

Tahvonen³

2022

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This article employs a couple-level framework to examine how a child’s severe illness affects within-family gender inequality in a Northern European context. We study the parental labor market responses to a child’s cancer diagnosis by exploiting an event study methodology and individual-level administrative data onhospitalizations and labor market variables for the total population in Finland. We focus on the differences in the effects by gender, breadwinner status, cancer severity and age of children. We find that child cancer has a negative impact on the labor income of both the mother and the father. This effect is considerably larger for women, and therefore leads to an increase in gender inequality on top of the well-documented motherhood penalty related to childbirth. However, mothers who are the main breadwinners in the family experience a smaller reduction in their contribution to household income. Additionally, older age of the child at cancer diagnosis and less severe cancer type potentially protect against gendered responses. These new insights provide evidence on gender roles when a child falls ill and show how child health affects gender inequality in two-parent households.

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Section: S-8mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender inequality reinforced: the impact of a child's health shock on parents' labor market trajectories

Vaalavuo¹,

Salokangas²,

Tahvonen³

2022

Preprint

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“…24 Apart from the type of cancer, the amount of caregiving strain that parents experience is likely to depend on the child's age at diagnosis and other family characteristics. A child's younger age at diagnosis has been found to increase parental distress, 25 potentially because younger children need more care irrespective of their treatment status. The presence of other underage siblings is also likely to increase care demands on parents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…caregiver burden, caregivers, childhood cancer, mental health, parents, population register, psychotropic drugs changes in the prevalence of mental health symptoms according to time since the child's diagnosis, nor the predictors of prolonged use of mental healthcare. 25,38 To examine both the onset and duration of parents' psychological distress using a clinical measure of mental health, we take advantage of population-representative longitudinal register data and a fixed-effects study design. We use information on parents' psychotropic medication use--measured by medication purchases--both before and after the child's cancer diagnosis to (1) estimate changes in mothers' and fathers' psychotropic medication use over time, and (2) assess whether these associations differ by cancer type, child's age at diagnosis, presence of an underage sibling, and parent's living arrangement and education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in parents' psychotropic medication use following child's cancer diagnosis: A fixed‐effects register‐study in Finland

et al. 2022

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Background Symptoms of depression and anxiety are elevated among parents of children with cancer. However, knowledge of parents' psychotropic medication use following child's cancer diagnosis is scarce. Methods We use longitudinal Finnish register data on 3266 mothers and 2687 fathers whose child (aged 0–19) was diagnosed with cancer during 2000–2016. We record mothers' and fathers' psychotropic medication use (at least one annual purchase of anxiolytics, hypnotics, sedatives, or antidepressants) 5 years before and after the child's diagnosis and assess within‐individual changes in medication use by time since diagnosis, cancer type, child's age, presence of siblings, and parent's living arrangements and education using linear probability models with the individual fixed‐effects estimator. The fixed‐effects models compare each parent's annual probability of psychotropic medication use after diagnosis to their annual probability of medication use during the 5‐year period before the diagnosis. Results Psychotropic medication use was more common among mothers than fathers already before the child's diagnosis, 11.2% versus 7.3%. Immediately after diagnosis, psychotropic medication use increased by 6.0 (95% CI 4.8–7.2) percentage points among mothers and by 3.2 (CI 2.1–4.2) percentage points among fathers. Among fathers, medication use returned to pre‐diagnosis level by the second year, except among those whose child was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia or lymphoblastic lymphoma. Among mothers of children with a central nervous system cancer, medication use remained persistently elevated during the 5‐year follow‐up. For mothers with other under‐aged children or whose diagnosed child was younger than 10 years, the return to pre‐diagnosis level was also slow. Conclusions Having a child with cancer clearly increases parents' psychotropic medication use. The increase is smaller and more short‐lived among fathers, but among mothers its duration depends on both cancer type and family characteristics. Our results suggest that an increased care burden poses particular strain to the long‐term mental well‐being of mothers.

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“…Indeed, in caregivers of adults with cancer and other severe diseases, dysregulations in certain biological processes have been found, for example, immune-and stressresponses and glucocorticoid resistance. [16][17][18] Effects of childhood cancer on parents' psychological distress are well documented, [19][20][21] yet negligible attention has been paid to parents' somatic health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, in caregivers of adults with cancer and other severe diseases, dysregulations in certain biological processes have been found, for example, immune‐ and stress‐responses and glucocorticoid resistance 16–18 . Effects of childhood cancer on parents' psychological distress are well documented, 19–21 yet negligible attention has been paid to parents' somatic health. The “Integrative Model of Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress” outlines illness‐related dimensions, risk factors, as well as developmental and contextual influences affecting traumatic stress due to pediatric medical conditions 22 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of somatic hospitalization in parents after cancer in a child, a nationwide cohort study

et al. 2022

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Objective The diagnosis of cancer in a child is a profoundly stressful experience. The impact on parents' somatic health, including lifestyle‐related diseases, however, is unresolved. This paper assesses parents' risk of hospitalization with somatic disease after a child's cancer diagnosis. Methods We conducted a nationwide population‐ and register‐based study with parents of all children under age 20 diagnosed with cancer in Denmark between 1998 and 2013 and parents of cancer‐free children, matched (1:10) on child's age and family type. We estimated HR with 95% CI in Cox proportional hazard models for 13 major International Classification of Diseases‐10 disease groups, selected stress‐ and lifestyle‐related disease‐groups, and investigated moderation by time since diagnosis, parental sex, and cancer type. Results Among n = 7797 parents of children with cancer compared with n = 74,388 parents of cancer‐free children (51% mothers, mean age 42), we found no overall pattern of increased risk for 13 broad disease groups. We found increases in digestive system diseases (HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01–1.12), genitourinary system diseases (HR 1.08, 95% CI 1.02–1.14), and neoplasms (HR 1.20, 95% CI 1.13–1.27), the latter attributable mostly to increased rates of tobacco‐related cancers and mothers' diet‐related cancers. Conclusions This is the first attempt to document the impact of childhood cancer on parents' somatic health. With the exception of increased risk for neoplasms, likely due to shared genetic or lifestyle factors, our findings offer the reassuring message, that the burden of caring for a child with cancer does not in general increase parents' risk for somatic diseases.

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Hospital Contacts for Psychiatric Disorders in Parents of Children With Cancer in Denmark

Cited by 9 publications

References 30 publications

Gender inequality reinforced: the impact of a child's health shock on parents' labor market trajectories

Gender inequality reinforced: the impact of a child's health shock on parents' labor market trajectories

Changes in parents' psychotropic medication use following child's cancer diagnosis: A fixed‐effects register‐study in Finland

Risk of somatic hospitalization in parents after cancer in a child, a nationwide cohort study

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