Childhood Cancer Registry of Piedmont, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Piedmont Cancer Registry, Biella and Vercelli Provinces, Epidemiology Unit, ASL VC, Vercelli, Italy.
Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2019 May;66(5):e27616. doi: 10.1002/pbc.27616. Epub 2019 Jan 24.
Several nonbiological factors, including socioeconomic status indicators and other family characteristics, influence survival from childhood cancers. Our study explores the association between parental education and childhood cancer survival.
The specialized Childhood Cancer Registry of the Piedmont region in Italy provided data on all the cases (aged 0-14) diagnosed with cancer in the period 1976-2011 who resided in the city of Turin (capital of the Piedmont region) at least once since 1971. Information on parental education was extracted from the Turin Longitudinal Study by record linkage. The association between parental educational level and survival was estimated using Cox regression.
The study included 949 children. We observed a disadvantage in the overall survival for children of less educated mothers. No such effect was observed for paternal education. The effect of maternal education was particularly strong for central nervous system tumors (hazard ratios, 2.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-8.0). A similar effect, though smaller in magnitude, was observed for leukemia and embryonal tumors, whereas the estimates for lymphoma were imprecise.
Our study shows an association between maternal educational level and survival in children with central nervous system tumors, a diagnosis that often requires long-lasting treatment and special care. Giving support to the families of affected children to provide them the optimal care has the potential to improve children's cancer treatment outcomes.
一些非生物因素，包括社会经济地位指标和其他家庭特征，影响儿童癌症的生存。我们的研究探讨了父母教育程度与儿童癌症生存之间的关系。
意大利皮埃蒙特地区的专门儿童癌症登记处提供了数据，这些数据涉及在 1976 年至 2011 年间在都灵市（皮埃蒙特地区首府）居住的所有（0-14 岁）癌症病例，这些病例自 1971 年以来至少在都灵居住过一次。父母教育信息通过记录链接从都灵纵向研究中提取。使用 Cox 回归估计父母教育水平与生存之间的关联。
该研究纳入了 949 名儿童。我们观察到受教育程度较低的母亲的儿童总体生存率较低。对于父亲的教育程度，没有观察到这种影响。母亲教育的影响对于中枢神经系统肿瘤特别明显（风险比，2.9；95%置信区间，1.1-8.0）。对于白血病和胚胎肿瘤，也观察到类似的效应，尽管程度较小，而对于淋巴瘤的估计则不太准确。
我们的研究表明，母亲教育程度与中枢神经系统肿瘤儿童的生存之间存在关联，中枢神经系统肿瘤的诊断通常需要长期治疗和特殊护理。为受影响儿童的家庭提供支持，以提供最佳护理，有可能改善儿童癌症治疗结果。
