Occupational outcomes after high-grade or low-grade brain tumors in childhood: A Swedish, nationwide, registry-based study

Abstract

Background: Survivors of pediatric brain tumors are at high risk of late complications that may affect their daily life in both short- and long-term perspectives. Methods: In this nationwide registry-based study we explored the occupational outcomes, including employment, sickness or activity compensation and parental leave, in 452 individuals in Sweden, born 1988–1996, and diagnosed with a brain tumor before their 15th birthday. Their results were compared with 2188 matched controls. Results: There were significant differences between cases and controls for all assessed variables. The cases had benefitted from sickness or activity compensation 11 times more often than controls (CI 7.90–15.83; p < 0.001) between 2005 and 2016. Controls were almost three times more likely to have an employment (OR 0.36; CI 0.28–0.47; p < 0.001) and nearly twice as likely to have been on parental leave (OR 0.56; CI 0.39–0.80; p = 0.002). Although cases treated for high-grade tumors typically fared worse than those treated for low-grade tumors, significant differences for all assessed variables were also observed for cases treated for a low-grade tumor compared with controls. Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the need for follow-up programs for all brain tumor diagnoses, not only those known to be at most risk. This is evident, for example, from the high number of cases who received sickness or activity compensation.