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. 2020 Nov 1;126(21):4753-4760.
doi: 10.1002/cncr.33146. Epub 2020 Aug 18.

Parental education and cancer mortality in children, adolescents, and young adults: A case-cohort study within the 2011 Italian census cohort

Gianfranco Alicandro  1 , Paola Bertuccio  2 , Gabriella Sebastiani  1 , Carlo La Vecchia  3 , Luisa Frova  1
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Free article

Parental education and cancer mortality in children, adolescents, and young adults: A case-cohort study within the 2011 Italian census cohort

Gianfranco Alicandro et al. Cancer. .
Free article

Abstract

Background: Progress in the treatment of juvenile cancers has led to remarkable improvements in survival. However, not all families have the resources to cope with the burden that such diseases require. This study was aimed at evaluating the association between parental education and cancer mortality in children, adolescents, and young adults.

Methods: This was a case-cohort study based on 1889 cancer cases and 108,387 noncases sampled from the 2011 Italian census cohort of 10,964,837 individuals younger than 20 years and followed for 6 years. Mortality rate ratios (MRRs) were estimated for individuals with parents with high and intermediate levels of education (International Standard Classification of Education [ISCED] levels 5-8 and 3-4, respectively) in comparison with individuals with less educated parents (ISCED levels < 3) through multiple Poisson regression models.

Results: Over the follow-up, 684, 858, and 347 cancer cases with parents with the lowest, intermediate, and highest levels of education, respectively, were registered. In comparison with the individuals with parents with the lowest level of education, the MRR from all neoplasms was 0.92 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83-1.03) for those with parents with an intermediate level of education and 0.83 (95% CI, 0.72-0.95) for those with parents with the highest level of education. The MRRs from all neoplasms for individuals with parents with the highest level of education were 0.88 (95% CI, 0.69-1.11) among children, 0.87 (95% CI, 0.70-1.06) among adolescents, and 0.64 (95% CI, 0.50-0.83) among young adults.

Conclusions: Children, adolescents, and young adults with highly educated parents have reduced mortality from cancer. This calls for further efforts to optimize treatment for children of less educated parents.

Keywords: childhood cancers; leukemia; mortality; parental education; tumors of central nervous system.

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