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Abstract
Background Parental cancer as well as economic hardship in the family during childhood can affect the child negatively. Our aim was to examine the association between the joint exposure to parental cancer and income loss in childhood and the child’s socioeconomic position in early adulthood.
Methods We conducted a register-based prospective cohort study of children born in Denmark between 1978 and 1986 and in Norway between 1979 and 1987. The children were followed from 1 January 1994 (in Denmark) or 1995 (in Norway). Educational level and personal income were measured at age 30 years. Children who experienced parental cancer between the years they turned 8 and 16 years were identified, and exposure to income loss was measured in the same period. Adjusted multinomial logistic regression model was used to estimate relative risk ratios for the joint exposure of parental cancer and income loss during childhood.
Results Children who experienced parental cancer and an income loss during childhood had an increased risk of low education and lower income at age 30 years. The associations were weaker for children only exposed to income loss and less clear for those only exposed to parental cancer. Further, exposure to parental cancer with a severe cancer type was associated with lower educational level.
Conclusion The child’s educational attainment and income level in early adulthood were negatively affected by exposure to income loss in childhood, and even more so if exposed to both parental cancer and income loss. The associations with educational attainment were stronger for more severe cancer types.
- life course epidemiology
- education
- cohort studies
- epidemiology
- child health
Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The Danish data can be made available after application to the Research Service Center at Statistics Denmark (forskningsservice@dst.dk) and the Danish Health Data Authority (forskerservice@sundhedsdata.dk), and the Norwegian data can be made available after application to Statistics Norway (mikrodata@ssb.no) and the Cancer Registry of Norway (datautlevering@kreftregisteret.no).
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Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The Danish data can be made available after application to the Research Service Center at Statistics Denmark (forskningsservice@dst.dk) and the Danish Health Data Authority (forskerservice@sundhedsdata.dk), and the Norwegian data can be made available after application to Statistics Norway (mikrodata@ssb.no) and the Cancer Registry of Norway (datautlevering@kreftregisteret.no).
Footnotes
Contributors A-MNA, SKU and MK developed the study and the study methods. MK and SKU conducted the Danish statistical analyses and ÅH conducted the Norwegian statistical analyses. MK and SKU drafted the manuscript. SKU is guarantor. All authors interpreted the study results and critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted.
Funding This study was supported by NordForsk under grant agreement number 83540 (WELLIFE).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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