Influence of offspring on quality of life among cancer patients and survivors: results from the Korean longitudinal study of aging (KLoSA), 2008-2011.

["Kim, Jae-Hyun", "Park, Eun-Cheol"]

Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP 2014

To examine whether offspring improve or reduce quality of life (QOL) among cancer patients and survivors. We used data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) from 2008 to 2011. There were 490 research subjects in our study: 245 cancer patients and survivors and 245 controls matched using propensity scores. For cancer patients and survivors with no offspring, the QOL estimate was -2.831 lower (SE: 5.508, p-value: 0.623) than that of those with two offspring, while for those with five or more offspring, the QOL estimate was 7.336 higher (SE: 2.840, p-value: 0.036). For non-cancer patients and survivors with one child, the QOL estimate was -11.258 lower (SE: 2.430, p-value: 0.002) than that of those with two offspring, while for those with five or more offspring, the QOL estimate was -4.881 lower (SE: 2.484, p-value: 0.090). This article provides evidence for a beneficial effect of offspring upon QOL in cancer patients and survivors, indicating that offspring are important for them.