Objective: The aim was to examine how parental cancer affects the mental health of offspring aged 6–30, and age variations in this effect. Methods: Individual fixed-effects models were estimated from register data covering the entire Norwegian population in 2010–2018. The outcome variable was whether the individual (offspring) had at least one consultation within a year with a general practitioner (GP) or specialist where a mental health diagnosis or symptom was reported. Results: The consultation probability was higher after a parental cancer diagnosis than before (e.g., 15% higher in the first year after the diagnosis). This was to a large extent driven by subsequent parental deaths, but there was also a small post-diagnosis increase among offspring whose parent survived the observation period. The consultation probability increased by 83% the year a parent died among offspring who were 19–30 at that time, after a smaller increase over a few of the preceding years. A decline occurred later. The death seemed to have a weaker, but more lasting, effect on those who were 8–18 years old at the time of the death, and these did not experience a clear pre-death increase. Conclusions: Parental cancer death seems to weaken offspring’s mental health – and no less among young adults than among children. By contrast, having a parent with cancer who remains alive at least throughout the observation period has relatively little impact. Contribution: We show associations between parental cancer and offspring’s mental health, paying special attention to whether the parent dies. This may inform discussions about supporting offspring.

中文翻译：

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父母癌症对儿童和年轻人心理健康的影响：来自挪威医疗保健咨询登记数据的证据（Øystein Kravdal、Jonathan Wörn、Rannveig Hart、Bjørn-Atle Reme）

目的：目的是研究父母癌症如何影响 6-30 岁后代的心理健康，以及这种影响的年龄差异。方法：根据 2010-2018 年覆盖整个挪威人口的登记数据估算个体固定效应模型。结果变量是个体（后代）是否在一年内至少与全科医生（GP）或专家进行过一次咨询，并报告了心理健康诊断或症状。结果：父母诊断出癌症后就诊的概率比诊断前更高（例如诊断后第一年提高了 15%）。这在很大程度上是由随后的父母死亡造成的，但父母在观察期幸存的后代在诊断后也有小幅增加。当时 19 岁至 30 岁的子女中，父母去世的那一年，就诊概率增加了 83%，而前几年增幅较小。后来出现了下降。死亡对死亡时年龄在 8 至 18 岁的人的影响似乎较弱，但更持久，而且这些人在死前并没有经历明显的增加。结论：父母的癌症死亡似乎会削弱后代的心理健康——年轻人的心理健康程度不亚于儿童。相比之下，如果父母患有癌症，至少在整个观察期内仍然活着，影响相对较小。贡献：我们展示了父母癌症与后代心理健康之间的关联，特别关注父母是否死亡。这可能会为有关支持后代的讨论提供信息。