Grandparents of children with cancer: Quality of life, medication and hospitalizations

Background Grandparents can play a crucial role of providing emotional and practical support for families facing childhood cancer. Yet, many have their own healthcare needs. This controlled study systematically assesses the impact of childhood cancer on grandparents’ quality of life (QOL). Our objective was to compare QOL in grandparents of children with and without cancer and to identify factors associated with grandparents’ QOL. Procedure Grandparents (N = 222) completed two patient‐reported outcome (PRO) measures assessing QOL: EQ‐5D‐5L and WHOQOL‐BREF. Secondary endpoints included sleep, medications and hospitalizations. We used independent samples t‐tests and multivariate linear regression to assess between‐group differences and identify predictors. Results Grandparents of children with cancer (n = 89) reported significantly worse QOL than controls (n = 133) [mean WHOQOL‐BREF score: 75.6 (SD = 17.6) vs. 81.5 (15.6), P = 0.007; mean EQ‐5D‐5L index value: 0.777 (0.20) vs. 0.874 (0.14), P