The association of health status and cancer history of young adult survivors of childhood cancer with parental accompaniment to survivorship clinic visits

Purpose Adult childhood cancer survivors are frequently accompanied by a parent to survivorship clinic. From clinical evaluations among young adult survivors of childhood cancer we aimed to (1) investigate the association between accompaniment and the survivors’ health complexity; and (2) determine whether accompaniment is associated with adherence to recommended surveillance tests and follow-up in clinic. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of all patients ≥ 18 years old at their first visit to the regional Yale Childhood Cancer Survivorship Clinic from 2003 to 2018. Patients underwent standardized evaluations for medical, neurocognitive, and emotional late effects of therapy; individuals accompanying patients were documented. Results The 168 patients were a median of 12.0 (range: 0–17.9) years at diagnosis and 22.7 (range: 18.1–39.9) years at evaluation, and 45.8% were accompanied by a parent. In multivariable analyses, 18.0–24.99 years vs. 25.0–39.99 years at visit (OR = 3.43, p = 0.022) and central nervous system (CNS) tumor diagnosis (OR = 6.09 vs. leukemia/lymphoma diagnosis, p = 0.010) were significantly associated with parental accompaniment. Accompaniment was not associated with number and severity of medical late effects, neurocognitive impairment, or emotional distress. Accompaniment was not associated with completed surveillance tests or a clinic follow-up within 2 years. Conclusion Forty-six percent of survivors were accompanied by a parent, and accompaniment was not associated with survivor health status. Accompaniment was not associated with adherence to recommended surveillance tests or clinic follow-up.