Table 2.

Degree of Financial Hardship and Work Disruptions Caused by Child's Illness and Financial Strategies to Cope With Burden Used by Parents of Children Who Died of Cancer in Three US and Australian Centers

Variable	US Centers (n = 141)		Australian Center(n = 88)		P *
	No.†	%	No.†	%
Degree of financial hardship
No, a little, or moderate	107	76	54	61	.02
A great deal	34	24	34	39
Work disruptions
Family member had to cut back work	118	84	77	88	NS
None	23	16	11/87	13
Mother	55	39	21/87	24
Father	19	14	20/87	23
Other caregiver	1	1	1/87	1
More than one caregiver	43	31	34/87	39
Mother or father had to quit job	50	35	43	49	.04
Percent of annual income lost by work disruptions
≤ 10%	53/130	41	29/78	37	.04
10-40%	52/130	40	22/78	28
> 40%	25/130	19	27/78	34
Financial coping strategies
Transfers (fundraising efforts for child)	73	52	29	33	< .01
Reduced consumption (forego making a big purchase)	44/140	31	22	25	NS
Borrowing (take out mortgage, credit, loan, other)	29	21	19	22	NS
Income diversification (family member got a job or took another job)	9	6	2	2	NS‡
Disposal of assets (sell property)	8	6	5	6	NS
No. of strategies used
0	49	35	36	41
1	46	33	30	35	NS
≥ 2	45	32	21	24

Abbreviation: NS, not significant (P > .05).

^*χ² test.

^†Denominator is indicated when different from total sample.

^‡Fisher's exact test.