Caring for a child with cancer increases parental mental health care use

Privately insured parents of children with cancer are more likely to use mental health (MH) care than other parents, a study published online finds. became. JAMA network open.

Dr. Xin Fu and colleagues at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, evaluated the use of MH services among parents of children with and without cancer. The analysis included data from 4,837 families of children with cancer and 24,185 families of children without cancer, identified using the Merative MarketScan Commercial Claims Database.

Researchers found that parents were more likely to have anxiety-related visits (10.6 vs. 7.0 percent), depression-related visits (8.4 vs. 6.1 percent), and MH-related visits (18.1 vs. 13.3 percent) for the following illnesses: They found that it was higher in families with children. compared to having no cancer. The absolute odds of one or both parents experiencing anxiety-related visits, depression-related visits, and MH-related visits were 3.2 percentage points (45.7 percent relative increase) and 2.2 percentage points (36.1 percent relative increase). , and increased by 4.2 percent. Adjusted analyzes between families of children with cancer and families of children without cancer each showed a percentage point (31.3 percent relative increase). The magnitude of these differences was greater for mothers than for fathers.

“These findings suggest that targeted interventions to provide counseling and support are warranted to better meet the MH care needs of parents and caregivers of children with cancer. ”, the authors write.