Socioeconomic consequences of mental distress in survivors of childhood cancer and their first-degree relatives

Research problem and specific questions The significant advances in treating childhood cancers over the past decades resulted in an increasing population of childhood cancer survivors.

However, the survivors have an increased risk of developing secondary cancers, other chronic illnesses and psychological disorders, thus a poorer quality of life compared to individuals without a history of cancer.

Studies have reported adverse socioeconomic outcomes for survivors of childhood cancer with respect to educational attainment, unemployment, and income compared to the general population or their siblings.

Also, there is evidence that childhood cancer substantially impacts parental socioeconomic situation by disruptions in parents´ employment which subsequently exacerbates parental psychological distress and can affect siblings well-being.

Given the increasing population of childhood cancer survivors and lack of knowledge on the role of psychological distress in income, sickness absence, and disability pension among survivors and their first-degree relatives, especially in the Swedish population, this topic merits further investigation.Data and methodsWe will conduct several registry-linkage studies by integrating various Swedish population-based registers including the Childhood Cancer Registry, Patient Register, Multi-generation Register, Longitudinal Integration Database for Health Insurance and Labor Market Studies, and Social Insurance Register.

Information from childhood cancer survivors and their first degree relatives will be obtained and several statistical analyses including mediation analysis will be performed.Societal relevance and utilizationThis research project may significantly contribute to filling knowledge gaps concerning the role of mental health in the sickness absence and financial burden of childhood cancer survivors and their first degree relatives.

By identifying detailed sociodemographic characteristics, our studies provide knowledge that may be informative for prevention strategies and would facilitate policy interventions and thus could lead to reduce work disability in these vulnerable groups and reduce social inequity.Plan for project realizationA large proportion of the cleaned data is available to the group.

Data from the Social Insurance Agency and the Childhood Cancer Registry will be requested.

The main applicant with the assistance of a statistician will perform the statistical analysis and write several manuscripts.