Psychological, financial, and educational impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic among children and adolescents with cancer and their families: a systematic review and thematic analysis

Abstract

Children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer and their caregivers are routinely exposed to challenges most families will likely never face, especially during health emergencies where health system resources are put under pressure. The goal of this review was to systematically collect and synthesize the existing literature that examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological, financial, and educational outcomes among children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer and their caregivers, which usually are parents but may also include other family members such as siblings or grandparents. MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO were searched on May 3, 2022. We included both qualitative and quantitative original research and brief reports from which we extracted population demographics, COVID-19 intervention, data collection, and outcome-related items. We then conducted a thematic analysis on the results sections of records. 50 studies of children (0–12 years) or adolescents (13–19 years) with cancer or their families were included. We identified five themes: Positive Impacts of COVID-19, Negative Psychological Experiences, Lack of Support, Mass Job Loss, and Disrupted Education. Our results demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with some positive and multiple negative psychosocial outcomes among children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer and their families.