Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2002 May 6;86(9):1419-24.
doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6600274.

Daycare attendance and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

X Ma  1 , P A Buffler, S Selvin, K K Matthay, J K Wiencke, J L Wiemels, P Reynolds
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Daycare attendance and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

X Ma et al. Br J Cancer. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

The relationship between daycare/preschool ("daycare") attendance and the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia was evaluated in the Northern California Childhood Leukaemia Study. Incident cases (age 1-14 years) were rapidly ascertained during 1995-1999. Population-based controls were randomly selected from the California birth registry, individually matched on date of birth, gender, race, Hispanicity, and residence, resulting in a total of 140 case-controls pairs. Fewer cases (n=92, 66%) attended daycare than controls (n=103, 74%). Children who had more total child-hours had a significantly reduced risk of ALL. The odds ratio associated with each thousand child-hours was 0.991 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.984-0.999), which means that a child with 50 thousand child-hours (who may have, for example, attended a daycare with 15 other children, 25 h per week, for a total duration of 30.65 months) would have an odds ratio of (0.991)(50)=0.64 (95% CI: 0.45, 0.95), compared to children who never attended daycare. Besides, controls started daycare at a younger age, attended daycare for longer duration, remained in daycare for more hours, and were exposed to more children at each daycare. These findings support the hypothesis that delayed exposure to common infections plays an important role in the aetiology of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and suggest that extensive contact with other children in a daycare setting is associated with a reduced risk of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Quantile–quantile plot of total thousand child–hours.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total child–hours and the risk of childhood ALL.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. AlexanderFEMcKinneyPMCartwrightRA1993Migration patterns of children with leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in three areas of northern England J Public Health Med 15915 - PubMed
    1. DockertyJDSkeggDCElwoodJMHerbisonGPBecroftDMLewisME1999Infections, vaccinations, and the risk of childhood leukaemia Br J Cancer 8014831489 - PMC - PubMed
    1. FersonMJ1993Infections in day care Curr Opin Pediat 53540 - PubMed
    1. GreavesMF1988Speculations on the Cause of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Leukemia 2120125 - PubMed
    1. GreavesM1997Aetiology of acute leukaemia Lancet 349344349 - PubMed

Publication types