The Role of Socio-economic Factors in Abandonment of Cancer Treatment among Paediatric Patients in Jos Nigeria

The outcome of pediatric cancer therapy in the developed country is good however in Developing countries like Nigeria pediatric cancer treatment is characterized by late presentation, presences of co-morbidities and outright refusal of investigation and initiation or continuation of treatment. This might be because of socio economic reasons. This study set out to determine the proportion of cancer patients who abandoned their therapy and identify the socioeconomic factors associated with AT among children diagnosed with malignancy.

Methods: Hospital records of 41 children admitted for childhood malignancy at the Jos University Teaching Hospital over a period of 2 years were retrieved and data was obtained from them regarding their biodata, diagnosis, treatment procedure and outcome. Data was computed using EPI info version 7.0 statistical software.

Abandonment of Treatment was compared with socio-economic variables using the chi square test or fisher exact score at 95% confidence interval. A p value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The prevalence of abandoning of treatment was 63.4%. The odds of AT was 4.5 times higher in children who were less than 10 years of age compared to older children. Children from smaller families (4 children or less) had a 3.4 odds of abandoning treatment than large families. The odds of abandoning treatment was 16 times (CI= 1.2-200.5) higher if a mother was the caregivers while the child was on hospital admission compared to others. AT was significantly higher in children who travel for ≥ 2 hours before arrival at the hospital (travelled for more than 2 hrs from their homes for therapy in JUTH). Socio economic status, parental education, gender, marital status of parent and birth order did not have any statistical association with AT.

Conclusion: The high rate of AT in pediatric cancer patient in Jos university Teaching Hospital is associated with socioeconomic factors. Further studies with a larger sample size will give more insight into this problem and pave way for possible solutions.