Social Factors in Incidence And survival from childhood cancer (SOFIA)

The overall aim of this research project is to assess how socioeconomic position and other social and family factors are related to childhood cancer in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, and Finland), in terms of both disease risk and survival after diagnosis. The goal is to determine if socioeconomic differences in disease risk and outcome exist, and if so, elucidate causal pathways as potential targets for preventive measures to reduce cancer incidence to the lowest level possible, and to give all children an equal chance to a continued life after childhood cancer diagnosis.

To evaluate the effect of different socioeconomic factors on childhood cancer risk and survival, a case-control study based on all childhood cancer cases diagnosed in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland will be created. Data from the high-quality cancer registers and other health care registers from these Nordics countries, together with childhood cancer registers and administrative registers on socioeconomic factors from Statistics Denmark, Finland and Sweden will be used for this Nordic collaborative project.