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. 2019 Apr;13(2):187-196.
doi: 10.1007/s11764-019-00741-5. Epub 2019 Feb 18.

Hospitalization rate in offspring of cancer survivors: a national cohort study

Jianguang Ji  1 , Wuqing Huang  2 , Jan Sundquist  2   3 , Kristina Sundquist  2   3
Affiliations

Hospitalization rate in offspring of cancer survivors: a national cohort study

Jianguang Ji et al. J Cancer Surviv. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: The number of childbirths among cancer survivors continues to increase, but it is still largely unknown whether the children of cancer survivors might experience adverse health outcomes during the process of growing up.

Methods: We identified all individuals diagnosed with cancer between 1958 and 2015 from the Swedish Cancer Registry and linked them to the Swedish Medical Birth Register to identify their offspring born between 1997 and 2015. Up to 10 children, whose parents did not have a diagnosis of cancer, were matched with the study population according to date of birth and gender.

Results: By linking with the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register, we found that the hospitalization rate was 15% higher in offspring of female cancer survivors, and 16% higher in offspring of male cancer survivors as compared to matched controls. Besides an increased risk of hospitalization due to malignant neoplasms (relative risk (RR) = 1.86, 99% CI 1.70-2.04) and benign neoplasms (RR = 1.48, 99% CI 1.18-1.86), a non-significant increased risk was found for hospitalization due to infectious and parasitic disease (RR = 1.09, 99% CI 0.98-1.21), diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs and certain disorders involving the immune mechanisms (RR = 1.33, 99% CI 0.98-1.80), and diseases of the circulatory system (RR = 1.05, 99% CI 0.98-1.12).

Conclusion: Our study suggests that children of cancer survivors might experience a significantly increased rate of hospitalization, which calls for further studies.

Implications for cancer survivors: Cancer survivors might be aware that the risk of hospitalization due to various diseases might be higher in their children as compared to the normal population.

Keywords: Cancer survivor; Cohort study; Epidemiology; Hospitalization rate.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Hospitalization rate in offspring of female cancer survivors stratified by age at diagnosis
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Hospitalization rate in offspring of male cancer survivors stratified by age at diagnosis
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Hospitalization rate in offspring of female cancer survivors stratified by year at diagnosis of cancer
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Hospitalization rate in offspring of male cancer survivors stratified by year at diagnosis of cancer
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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