Marriage and parenthood among XXXX survivors: a report from the Italian AIEOP Off-Therapy Registry.

@entity5 @entity1 @entity204
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to describe the patterns of marriage and parenthood in a cohort of @entity5 survivors included in the Off-Therapy Registry maintained by the Italian Association of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. DESIGN AND METHODS: We analyzed a cohort of 6,044 @entity1 diagnosed with @entity5 between 1960 and 1998, while aged 0 to 14 years and who were 18 years old or older by December 2003. They were followed up through the regional vital statistics registers until @entity204 or the end of follow up (October 30, 2006), whichever occurred first, and their marital status and date of birth of their @entity1 were recorded. The cumulative probabilities of being married and having a first @entity1 were computed by gender and compared by @entity5 type within the cohort. Marriage and fertility rates (the latter defined as the number of live births per @entity1 -year) were compared with those of the Italian population of the same age, gender, area of residence and calendar period by means of the observed to expected (O/E) ratios. RESULTS: During the follow-up period, 4,633 (77%) subjects had not married. The marriage O/E ratios were 0.56 (95% CI: 0.51-0.61) and 0.70 (95% CI: 0.65-0.76) among @entity1 and @entity1 , respectively. Overall, 263 @entity1 had 367 liveborn @entity1 , and 473 @entity1 had 697 liveborn @entity1 . The female fertility O/E ratio was 0.57 (95% CI: 0.53-0.62) overall, and 1.08 (95% CI: 0.99-1.17) when analyses were restricted to married/cohabiting @entity1 CONCLUSIONS: Childhood @entity5 survivors are less likely to marry and to have @entity1 than the general population, confirming the life-long impact of their previous disease on their social behavior and choices. The inclusion of counseling in the strategies of management and long-term surveillance of @entity5 @entity1 could be beneficial to survivors as they approach adulthood.
