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Background The psychological toll on parents of a child receiving a cancer diagnosis is known to be high, but there is a knowledge gap regarding suicidal behavior among these parents. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk of suicide attempt and death by suicide in relation to having a child with cancer. Methods and findings We performed a binational population-based and sibling-controlled cohort study, including all parents with a child diagnosed with cancer in Denmark (1978 to 2016) or Sweden (1973 to 2014), 10 matched unexposed parents per exposed parent (population comparison), and unaffected full siblings of the exposed parents (sibling comparison). Suicide attempt was identified through the Patient Register and the Psychiatric Central Register in Denmark and the Patient Register in Sweden, whereas death by suicide was identified through the Danish Causes of Death Register and the Swedish Causes of Death Register. In population comparison, we used Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of suicide attempt and death by suicide associated with cancer diagnosis of a child, adjusting for sex, age, country of residence, calendar year, marital status, highest attained educational level, household income, history of cancer, history of psychiatric disorder, and family history of psychiatric disorder. The sibling comparison was performed to assess the role of familial confounding in the studied associations. The population comparison consisted of 106,005 exposed parents and 1,060,050 matched unexposed parents, with a median age of 56 at cohort entry and 46.9% male. During the median follow-up of 7.3 and 7.2 years, we observed 613 (incidence rate [IR], 58.8 per 100,000 person-years) and 5,888 (IR, 57.1 per 100,000 person-years) cases of first-onset suicide attempt among the exposed and unexposed parents, respectively. There was an increased risk of parental suicide attempt during the first years after a child's cancer diagnosis (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, [1.03, 1.28]; p = 0.01), particularly when the child was 18 or younger at diagnosis (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, [1.08, 1.46]; p = 0.004), when the child was diagnosed with a highly aggressive cancer (HR, 1.60; 95% CI, [1.05, 2.43]; p = 0.03), or when the child died due to cancer (HR, 1.63; 95% CI, [1.29, 2.06]; p < 0.001). The increased risk did not, however, maintain thereafter (HR, 0.86; 95% CI: [0.75, 0.98]; p = 0.03), and there was no altered risk of parental death by suicide any time after the child's cancer diagnosis. Sibling comparison corroborated these findings. The main limitation of the study is the potential residual confounding by factors not shared between full siblings. Conclusions In this study, we observed an increased risk of parental suicide attempt during the first years after a child's cancer diagnosis, especially when the child was diagnosed during childhood, or with an aggressive or fatal form of cancer. There was, however, no altered risk of parental death by suicide at any time after a child's cancer diagnosis. Our findings suggest extended clinical awareness of suicide attempt among parents of children with cancer, especially during the first few years after cancer diagnosis., Author(s): Qianwei Liu 1,2,*, Krisztina D. László 3,4, Dang Wei 2, Fen Yang 3, Katja Fall 2,5, Unnur Valdimarsdóttir 2,6,7, Maria Feychting 2, Jiong Li 8, Fang Fang 2 Introduction [...]

Background The death of a child is an extreme life event with potentially long-term health consequences. Knowledge about its association with ischemic heart diseases (IHDs) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI), however, is very limited. We investigated whether the death of an offspring is associated with the risk of IHD and AMI. Methods and findings We studied parents of live-born children recorded in the Danish (1973 to 2016) and the Swedish (1973 to 2014) Medical Birth Registers (n = 6,711,952; mean age at baseline 31 years, 53% women). We retrieved information on exposure, outcomes, and covariates by linking individual-level information from several nationwide registers. We analyzed the abovementioned associations using Poisson regression. A total of 126,522 (1.9%) parents lost at least 1 child during the study period. Bereaved parents had a higher risk of IHD and AMI than the nonbereaved [incidence rate ratios (IRRs) (95% confidence intervals (CIs)): 1.20 (1.18 to 1.23), P < 0.001 and 1.21 (1.17 to 1.25), P < 0.001, respectively]. The association was present not only in case of losses due to CVD or other natural causes, but also in case of unnatural deaths. The AMI risk was highest in the first week after the loss [IRR (95% CI): 3.67 (2.08 to 6.46), P < 0.001], but a 20% to 40% increased risk was observed throughout the whole follow-up period. Study limitations include the possibility of residual confounding by socioeconomic, lifestyle, or health-related factors and the potentially limited generalizability of our findings outside Scandinavia. Conclusions The death of an offspring was associated with an increased risk of IHD and AMI. The finding that the association was present also in case of losses due to unnatural causes, which are less likely to be confounded by cardiovascular risk factors clustering in families, suggests that stress-related mechanisms may also contribute to the observed associations., Author(s): Dang Wei 1,*, Imre Janszky 1,2, Fang Fang 3, Hua Chen 1, Rickard Ljung 3,4, Jiangwei Sun 3, Jiong Li 5, Krisztina D. László 1 Introduction An increasing number [...]

Background The prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been increasing in children, adolescents, and young adults in recent decades. Exposure to adverse intrauterine environment in fetal life may contribute to the elevated risk of early-onset CVD. Many studies have shown that maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are associated with increased risks of congenital heart disease, high blood pressure, increased BMI, and systemic vascular dysfunction in offspring. However, empirical evidence on the association between prenatal exposure to maternal HDP and early-onset CVD in childhood and adolescence remains limited. Methods and findings We conducted a population-based cohort study using Danish national health registers, including 2,491,340 individuals born in Denmark from 1977 to 2018. Follow-up started at birth and ended at the first diagnosis of CVD, emigration, death, or 31 December 2018, whichever came first. Exposure of maternal HDP was categorized as preeclampsia or eclampsia (n = 68,387), gestational hypertension (n = 18,603), and pregestational hypertension (n = 15,062). Outcome was the diagnosis of early-onset CVD from birth to young adulthood (up to 40 years old). We performed Cox proportional hazards regression to evaluate the associations and whether the association differed by maternal history of CVD or diabetes before childbirth. We further assessed the association by timing of onset and severity of preeclampsia. The median follow-up time was 18.37 years, and 51.3% of the participants were males. A total of 4,532 offspring in the exposed group (2.47 per 1,000 person-years) and 94,457 in the unexposed group (2.03 per 1,000 person-years) were diagnosed with CVD. We found that exposure to maternal HDP was associated with an increased risk of early-onset CVD (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.23; 95% CI = 1.19 to 1.26; P < 0.001). The HRs for preeclampsia or eclampsia, gestational hypertension, and pregestational hypertension were 1.22 (95% CI, 1.18 to 1.26; P < 0.001), 1.25 (95% CI, 1.17 to 1.34; P < 0.001), and 1.28 (95% CI, 1.15 to 1.42; P < 0.001), respectively. We also observed increased risks for type-specific CVDs, in particular for hypertensive disease (HR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.96 to 2.27; P < 0.001) and myocardial infarction (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.98; P = 0.007). Strong associations were found among offspring of mothers with CVD history (HR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.41 to 1.98; P < 0.001) or comorbid diabetes (HR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.34 to 1.83; P < 0.001). When considering timing of onset and severity of preeclampsia on offspring CVD, the strongest association was observed for early-onset and severe preeclampsia (HR, 1.48, 95% CI, 1.30 to 1.67; P < 0.001). Study limitations include the lack of information on certain potential confounders (including smoking, physical activity, and alcohol consumption) and limited generalizability in other countries with varying disparities in healthcare. Conclusions Offspring born to mothers with HDP, especially mothers with CVD or diabetes history, were at increased risks of overall and certain type-specific early-onset CVDs in their first decades of life. Further research is warranted to better understand the mechanisms underlying the relationship between maternal HDP and early-onset CVD in offspring., Author(s): Chen Huang 1, Jiong Li 2,3, Guoyou Qin 1, Zeyan Liew 4,5, Jing Hu 1, Krisztina D. László 6, Fangbiao Tao 7,8, Carsten Obel 9, Jørn Olsen 3, Yongfu [...]

Background: Pregnancy and childbirth entail increased risks of sickness absence (SA). Many women work in education and care, two branches characterised by high SA levels; it is not known if the link between childbirth and SA in these branches differs between private and public sectors. We examined SA and disability pension (DP) in relation to childbirth among women working in the education and care branches, and if these patterns differed between public and private sectors. Methods: We performed a Swedish register-based cohort study. Study participants were nulliparous women living in Sweden in December 2004 and employed in education or care (n = 120,013). We compared SA/DP in the three years before and after 2005 among women who had no childbirth during follow-up (B0), had one childbirth in 2005 and no more (B1), and had one childbirth in 2005 and at least one more during follow-up (B1+). Analyses were performed for all and by public or private sector. Results: Of all studied women, 70% worked in the public sector. Women in B1 and B1+ had, except for the year before childbirth, comparable or lower mean combined SA/DP days than women in the B0 group; women in the B1+ group had, except for the year before childbirth, the lowest mean level of SA/DP. We observed no substantial differences in these patterns between public and private sectors. Conclusions: Patterns of SA/DP among nulliparous women who did or did not give birth did not differ substantially between public and private sectors among women in the educational and care branches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescents' high academic expectations predict future health and successful societal integration. Yet, little is known about which factors may promote adolescents' expectations of their future education and academic achievement. Aims: To explore whether potentially modifiable factors such as parents' engagement and expectations regarding their child's education; or student individual factors such as school engagement, academic achievement, sense of identity, and positive mental health predict positive development of academic expectations in early adolescence. Methods: A longitudinal study of 3,203 adolescents and their parents was conducted with information collected between 7th grade (13 years of age) and 9th grade (16 years of age). Parental and adolescents' own academic expectations and engagement in school, academic achievement, identity synthesis, and mental health were self-reported in annual questionnaires. We used logistic regression to analyze the associations between the aforementioned factors and two binary outcomes related to changes in expectations from 7th to 9th grade: A. resolved uncertainty regarding own academic expectations; B. raised academic expectations. Results: Student engagement, and higher academic grades predicted both resolved uncertainty in expectations and raised academic expectations. Higher parental involvement in education was related to resolved uncertainty, while high parental expectations were related to raised student expectations. Identity synthesis and mental health did not appear to predict either outcome. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that a supportive parental attitude concerning their child's education during adolescence, student engagement, and positive progressions in academic achievements may contribute to a positive development of academic expectations, thus to positive educational trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pregnancy is associated with a temporarily increased sickness absence (SA) risk. This association may vary by the level of occupational gender segregation; however, knowledge in this area is limited. We studied whether trends in SA and disability pension (DP) in the years before and after first childbirth among women with one or more childbirths and with no childbirth during the study period varied by occupational gender segregation. Methods: We conducted a population-based register study involving nulliparous women aged 18–39 years, living in Sweden in 2002–2004 (n = 364,411). We classified participants in three childbirth groups as: (1) no childbirth in 2005 or in the next 3.75 years, (2) first childbirth in 2005 and no births in the subsequent 3.75 years, and (3) first childbirth in 2005 and at least one additional birth in the subsequent 3.75 years, and into five categories based on the rate of women in their occupations. We compared crude and standardized mean annual net SA and DP days during the three years before and the three years after 2005 across the childbirth and occupational gender segregation categories. Results: Women in extremely male-dominated occupations had or tended to have somewhat higher mean combined SA and DP days than women in gender-integrated occupations; women in female-dominated occupations had comparable or tended to have slightly higher mean SA and DP days than women in gender-integrated occupations. Except for the year before the first childbirth, women who gave birth, especially those who gave several births, had generally a lower mean combined standardized SA and DP days than nulliparous women. We found no substantial differences in trends in SA and DP around the time of first childbirth according to occupational gender segregation. Conclusions: Trends in SA and DP around the time of first childbirth did not vary by occupational gender segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]