An investigation of apparent leukaemia clusters in Fife by validation of cancer register data and a case-control study.
Validation of the Fife haematological cancer register data from 1968 to 1981 for patients aged 0 to 24 submitted to the Black Advisory Group demonstrated 'catastrophic' or 'major' errors in 23 (19%) of the 124 records. A case-control study of 43 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia aged 0 to 14 at diagnosis in Fife between 1970 and 1985 showed that the Mantel-Haenszel odds ratio (ORMH) was significantly higher for children resident at birth in the post code district KY8 (ORMH = 3.86, 95% confidence interval 1.31-11.36) or who had ever lived in post code districts KY8 (ORMH = 4.00, 95% CI 1.51-10.58) or KY11 (ORMH = 2.35, 95% CI 1.08-5.12). We conclude that routine cancer registration data require extensive validation before they can be used for epidemiological purposes; case-control studies can overcome some of the methodological problems involved in investigating apparent leukaemia clusters; and further environmental investigations are needed in two post code districts of Fife.
Baijal
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E
Roworth
M
M
Walker
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D
Coid
D R
DR
Jones
I G
IG
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012042:Registries; D012606:Scotland; D013029:Space-Time Clustering