Influence of pediatric cancer-related financial burden on parent distress and other stress-related symptoms.
BACKGROUND
Pediatric cancer-induced financial burden is source of stress for parents, particularly mothers, single parents, and parents with lower incomes. This financial burden has been linked to poorer family quality of life (QOL) in terms of new onset material hardships, and could also affect individual QOL in terms of parents' stress-related symptoms. Our purpose was to describe pediatric cancer-induced financial burden among parents of children with that diagnosis, its effects on their stress-related symptoms (distress, anxiety, cognition impairment, sleep impairment), and associations between select risk factors (relationship to the child, marital status, income) and the extent that financial burden affected parents' symptoms.


PROCEDURE
We recruited via two parent-led groups and collected data using an online survey. We calculated frequencies of demographic characteristics, financial burden, and symptoms. We used chi-square statistics to examine bivariate associations between the risk factors and extent that cancer-related financial burden affected parents' symptoms.


RESULTS
Most (63.6%) respondents reported that pediatric cancer severely affected their finances. The majority (50.23-69.86%) also reported that this burden severely affected their symptoms. Marital status, income, and, for some symptoms, relationship to the child were associated with the extent that financial burden affected the symptoms. Greater proportions of mothers (53-73.5%), divorced/single parents (69.2-90.4%), and parents in the lowest income category (77.3-95.5%) experienced severely affected symptoms compared to fathers (41.7-59.5%), married/partnered parents (41.7-59.5%), and parents in the highest income category (28.6-42.9%).


CONCLUSION
Financial burden and symptoms are fitting targets for interventions to improve family and individual QOL in the context of pediatric cancer.
['Santacroce|Sheila Judge|SJ|0000-0001-8713-8069', 'Kneipp|Shawn M|SM|']
D000293:Adolescent D001007:Anxiety D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D005260:Female D005500:Follow-Up Studies D006801:Humans D007182:Income D007223:Infant D007231:Infant, Newborn D008297:Male D009369:Neoplasms D010290:Parents D011788:Quality of Life D012959:Socioeconomic Factors D013315:Stress, Psychological D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
financial burden symptoms quality of life