Children and families from low-income households or remote regions as well as racial and ethnic minorities are likely to face unique logistical and financial challenges both during and after cancer treatment. As such, families in the lowest income quantiles may struggle to cover the indirect costs of treatment, such as travel, accommodation, and loss of parental income due to caregiving responsibilities. These financial pressures can have long lasting consequences both financially including but not limited to the inability to return to labour market and other psychosocial impacts such as prolonged stress and anxiety.

In collaboration with a recently approved Canadian Cancer Society grant, the Psychosocial and Survivorship team intends to look deeper into the datasets available through Statistics Canada and the Cancer in Young People in Canada (CYP-C) registry to better understand the effects of socio-economic disparities.

This project is establishing a first-ever linkage between pediatric cancer records and rich individual-level data to study socioeconomic outcomes, including longitudinal population-level tax records, Census data, hospitalization data etc.

By investigating differential impacts, this project will help elucidate structural inequities in the burden of pediatric cancer on survivors and their families and highlight high-burden populations that have been historically underserved. This focus is critical for developing tailored interventions that address the specific needs of vulnerable groups.

Moreover, the project will contribute to creating evidence-based resources and policy recommendations that can help reduce financial strain and improve access to comprehensive support for families in need. Additionally, it will ultimately, link a multi-disciplinary team of health economists, pediatric oncologists, health services researchers, data custodians, trainees, and people affected by childhood cancer within the ACCESS network.

For more information, please contact Jenna Craig.