title: Investigating the relationship between mortality from respiratory diseases and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in Hungary.
abstract: Our aim was to investigate the ecological association between death from infectious disease of the respiratory system and the risk of acute lymphoid leukaemia (ALL) in children aged less than 7 years. Poisson regression analyses were carried out using overall data and gender-specific models. The study included 176 cases (92(52.3 %) boys and 84 (47.7 %) girls) of ALL in those aged 0-6 years in South Hungary. Eight cases were diagnosed before the age of 1 year. A significant risk of ALL disease was observed with higher levels of mortality from the chronic respiratory diseases (p = 0.035) and pneumonia (p = 0.010) among children aged 2-5 years (Odds Ratio for trend was 1.001 and 95%CI [1.000-1.002] and Odds ratio for trend was 1.013 and 95%CI [1.003-1.023], respectively). Significantly increased risk of childhood ALL was detected among children under 1 year of age residing in areas around birth with higher levels of mortality from influenza (Odds Ratio (OR) for trend was 1.05; 95%CI [1.01-1.09]; p = 0.012). This risk was also detected in girls (p < 0.001), but not in boys (p = 0.43). Our findings provide new evidence that will help to understand the different pattern of female and male childhood ALL occurrence , but further studies are needed using detailed individual medical history to clarify the role of influenza and other infectious diseases in the etiology of childhood ALL and to explain gender-specific effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ottóffy
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Szigeti
authors.forename: Katalin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bartyik
authors.forename: Csaba
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nyári
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Richard J Q
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: McNally
authors.forename: Tibor A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Nyári
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000401:mortality*; D012307:Risk Factors