title: Food consumption by children and the risk of childhood acute leukemia.
abstract: The possible relation between child's early diet and risk of childhood leukemia has remained largely unexplored. The authors' objective was to determine what particular foods consumed early in life (first 2 years) are associated with risk of childhood leukemia in a 1995-2002 case-control study of a diverse California population. Dietary data were obtained from a questionnaire administered to the child's caregiver. Conditional logistic regression was used to analyze 328 case-control sets matched on age, sex, Hispanic status, and maternal race. Regular consumption of oranges/bananas (odds ratio = 0.49, 95% confidence interval: 0.26, 0.94) and orange juice (odds ratio = 0.54, 95% confidence interval: 0.31, 0.94) during the first 2 years of life was associated with a reduction in risk of childhood leukemia diagnosed between the ages of 2 and 14 years. Restricting the analysis to leukemia diagnosed between the ages of 2 and 5 years reflected a similar pattern of reduced risk. No association between eating hot dogs/lunch meats and risk of leukemia was found. These results suggest that fruits or fruit juices that contain vitamin C and/or potassium may reduce the risk of childhood leukemia, especially if they are consumed on a regular basis during the first 2 years of life.
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health Biology and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7380, USA. kwan@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Marilyn L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Kwan
authors.forename: Gladys
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Block
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Selvin
authors.forename: Stacy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Month
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Buffler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002140:California; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004032:Diet; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007223:Infant; D007938:Leukemia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires