title: Winter birth in association with a risk of brain tumor among a Finnish patient population.
abstract: The aim of this study was to analyze whether winter birth is related to risk of brain tumor in a clinical sample of patients from northern Finland. The study group comprised 101 patients suffering from a primary brain tumor. When comparing births in winter to births in other seasons, a 1.39-fold (95% CI 1.01-1.77) excess of winter births among patients was observed compared to respective births in the general population (p = 0.026). Especially patients with pituitary adenomas exhibited a 2.5-fold (95% CI 1.5-4.4) excess of winter births. The authors conclude that the season-of-birth effect in brain tumor patients should not be neglected when the actual and important tumorigenesis is investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Arja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mainio
authors.forename: Helinä
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hakko
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koivukangas
authors.forename: Asko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Niemelä
authors.forename: Pirkko
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Räsänen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002980:Climate; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036801:Parturition; D012621:Seasons; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed