Long-term population-based marriage rates among adult survivors of childhood cancer in Britain

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to assess the number of adult survivors of childhood cancer who ever married and the factors influencing marriage, compare observed marriages to those expected from the general population, and assess age at marriage and influencing factors. The data is based on the British Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (BCCSS), which is a population-based cohort of 18,119 individuals who were diagnosed with childhood cancer between 1940 and 91 and survived at least 5 years. Fourteen thousand five hundred thirty-nine were alive, aged at least 16 years and eligible to receive a postal questionnaire, which ascertained marriage status. Thirty-four percent of 9,954 survivors had married. Survivors with the following characteristics: males, CNS neoplasm, received radiotherapy, diagnosed with mental retardation, registered blind, low social functioning score (calculated from SF-36 health status measure), and achieved the highest level of educational attainment, were less likely to have married than the complementary survivor groups. The deficits in the proportion ever married compared to the general population were mostly between 9 and 18% among males and 7-10% among females. The largest ever married deficits were among male CNS neoplasm survivors aged 30 years or over (29-38%). Age at first marriage among survivors was related to: sex, childhood cancer type, age at diagnosis, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, mental retardation, and level of educational attainment. Regular follow-up for these survivors should address not just physical late-effects of the childhood cancer and treatment, but also psychosocial needs throughout the lifespan of the survivors to help them achieve life events as they occur in the general population.