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Leaving home after cancer in childhood: A measure of social independence in early adulthood
Author(s) -
Koch Susanne Vinkel,
Kejs Anne Mette Tranberg,
Engholm Gerda,
Møller Henrik,
Johansen Christoffer,
Schmiegelow Kjeld
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.20827
Subject(s) - medicine , psychosocial , socioeconomic status , demography , confidence interval , confounding , population , cancer registry , cancer , cohort study , cohort , relative risk , proportional hazards model , gerontology , pediatrics , psychiatry , environmental health , sociology
Background Previous studies on psychosocial outcomes for childhood and adolescent cancer survivors have found diverse results concerning social independence. As a measure of social independence, we investigated whether cancer survivors displayed the same patterns of leaving home as population‐based control group. Procedure We identified 1,597 patients in the Danish Cancer Register, born in 1965–1980, in whom a primary cancer was diagnosed before they reached the age of 20 in the period 1965–1995. The patients were compared with a random sample of the general population (n = 43,905) frequency matched on sex and date of birth. By linking the two cohorts to registers in Statistics Denmark, we obtained socioeconomic data for the period 1980–1997. The relative risk for leaving home was estimated with discrete‐time Cox regression models. Results The risk for leaving home of survivors of hematological malignancies and solid tumors did not differ significantly from that of the control cohort. Adjustments for possible socioeconomic confounders did not change this pattern. In contrast, survivors of central nervous system (CNS) tumors had a significantly reduced risk for leaving home, which was most pronounced for men (relative risk, men: 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.55–0.80; women: 0.88, 95% confidence interval, 0.80–0.97). Conclusion Overall, the psychosocial effects of cancer in childhood or adolescence and its treatment on the survivor and family did not appear to impede social independence in early adulthood, except for survivors of CNS tumors. Pediatr Blood Cancer © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.