This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Childhood, adolescent cancer survivors at increased risk for hospitalization
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Childhood and adolescent cancer survivors experienced a higher hospital admission rate and longer lengths of stay compared with a comparison cohort, according to study results.
“Our findings demonstrate that childhood cancer survivors face ongoing problems that can lead to hospitalization, even for those who are decades past their original cancer diagnosis. This can negatively impact their quality of life,” study investigator Anne C. Kirchhoff, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, said in a press release. “We saw higher rates of hospitalization across most cancer types, but not for all cancers, which gives us clues as to which groups of survivors may need better surveillance in the long term.”
Kirchhoff and colleagues evaluated data from the University of Utah’s Pedigree and Population Resource database on 1,499 childhood and adolescent cancer survivors who were diagnosed between 1973 and 2005. Researchers also included a cohort of 7,219 individuals matched for birth year and sex for comparison.
Follow-up began in 1996. The mean follow-up for survivors was 13.5 years (standard deviation [SD]=8.5), and mean follow-up for the comparison cohort was 14 years (SD=8.7; P=.05).
Each survivor was hospitalized a mean of 1.62 times (SD=3.37), compared with 0.79 times (SD=1.73) for each individual in the comparison cohort. Researchers calculated a 67% higher rate of readmission among survivors (RR=1.67; 95% CI, 1.58-1.77).
All cancer survivors were at a significantly increased risk for hospitalization (HR=1.52; 95% CI, 1.31-1.66), as were female (HR=1.21; 95% CI, 1.08-1.35) and male (HR=2.66; 95% CI, 2.25-3.13) survivors individually.
Survivors of neuroblastoma (RR=2.21; 95% CI, 1.84-2.66) and bone tumors (RR=2.55; 95% CI, 2.14-3.02) experienced the highest hospital admission rates.
Survivors were hospitalized more frequently than those in the comparison cohort due to anemia and other blood diseases (HR=14.2; 95% CI, 6.3-32), neoplasms (HR=9.5; 95% CI, 6.8-13.2), skin diseases (HR=1.6; 95% CI, 1.1-2.3) and mental disorders (HR=1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.).
Results also showed survivors faced longer hospitalization lengths of stay than those in the comparison cohort (mean, 4.55 days vs. 3.07 days; RR=1.35; 95% CI, 1.25-1.46). Male survivors were hospitalized for a mean of 5.4 days (SD=18.15), and female survivors were hospitalized for a mean of 4.04 days (SD=6.19).
“Regular cancer-focused health care is important for identifying health problems for survivors throughout their lives,” Kirchhoff said. “Patients and families who have experienced childhood cancer should obtain a cancer treatment summary and recommendations for follow-up care from their oncologist, and coordinate their follow-up care with their oncology and primary care doctors to ensure their health care needs are being managed.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts