Impact of childhood cancer on the mental health of parents

Background. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the family experiences g reat stress and disruption to daily life. As part of a national study in Ne w Zealand, we evaluated the mental health of mothers and fathers of childre n with cancer, making comparisons to parents of children from the general p opulation. Procedure. This was a cross-sectional study. All children diagno sed with cancer at ages 0-14 years in New Zealand during a defined period w ere ascertained from the national cancer registry and other databases. The population-based comparison children were selected using national birth rec ords. Parents from both groups completed self-administered questionnaires c ontaining the General Health questionnaire (GHQ-12) and other measures. The analyses included 218 mothers and 179 fathers of children with cancer, and 266 mothers and 224 fathers of children in the comparison group. Multivari ate regression was used to adjust for demographic and socioeconomic charact eristics, life events, and social support. Results. Mothers and fathers of children with cancer had poorer GHQ-12 and mood raring scores than those of controls. The adjusted difference in the mean total GHQ-12 score (comparin g mothers of children with cancer to mothers of controls) was 2.2 (95% conf idence interval 1.3-3.2). The 12 items of the GHQ were each scored 0-3, and the total score was the sum, so 2 points is a small difference. For father s the difference was 1.5 (95% confidence interval 0.6-2.4). Some subgroups of cancer group parents had poorer emotional health scores than others, inc luding those with poor social support and no paid employment and also those who were bereaved. Conclusions. We found statistically significant but sma ll differences between the mental health of parents of children with cancer and controls. The small differences suggest that as a group the parents of children with cancer are relatively resilient. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss. Inc.