Skyggebørn - børn som står i skyggen for en søskende der er alvorligt syg. Vi som sundhedsprofesionelle har kun officielt behandlingsansvaret for det syge barn i familien, men vi ved godt at det raske barn ofte oversees og nu er der også data på at disse skyggebørn er i øget risiko for indlæggelsekrævende sygdom. I et Canadisk kohortestudie følges 1600 børn som alle er rask-søskende til et barn med cancer, og de matches med 32.000 raske børn som har raske søskende og de finder som sagt øget indlæggelsesrisiko hos især børn med en ældre søskende som har cancer og især hvis det drejer sig om hæmatologisk cancer.
Auger et al.
Cancer
April 2022
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Abstract
Background: Health outcomes of children in families affected by cancer are poorly understood. The authors assessed the risk of hospitalization in children who have a sibling with cancer.
Methods: This was a longitudinal cohort study in which 1600 children who had a sibling with cancer were matched to 32,000 children who had unaffected siblings in Quebec, Canada, from 2006 to 2020. The exposure of interest was having a sibling with cancer. Outcomes included hospitalization for pneumonia, asthma, fracture, and other morbidities any time after the sibling was diagnosed with cancer. The children were followed over time, and Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the impact of having a sibling with cancer on the risk of hospitalization before age 14 years, adjusted for patient characteristics.
Results: Children who had a sibling with cancer had an increased risk of hospitalization compared with unaffected children (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.02-1.29). Conditions associated with a greater risk of hospitalization included pneumonia, hemangioma, other skin conditions, sleep apnea, and inflammatory bowel disease. The risk of hospitalization was greatest for children whose older sibling had cancer (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.01-1.32) and for children whose sibling had hematopoietic cancer (HR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.01-1.48).
Conclusions: Children who have a sibling with cancer are at risk of hospitalization for conditions such as pneumonia, inflammatory bowel disease, and other morbidities. Families affected by childhood cancer may benefit from additional support to facilitate care for all children in the family.
Lay summary: Little is known about the health of children who have a brother or sister with cancer. The authors studied the types of hospitalization experienced by children who have siblings with cancer. The results indicated that having a sibling with cancer increased the chance of being hospitalized for pneumonia and other conditions that could have been preventable. The results also indicated that children who had an older sibling with cancer or a sibling with blood cancer had a greater chance of being hospitalized. The findings highlight the importance of providing timely care for children in families affected by childhood cancer.
Keywords: cancer survivors; hospitalized child; infections; neoplasms; siblings.