No abstract

BackgroundThe early age at retinoblastoma occurrence, the most common eye malignancy in childhood, suggests that perinatal factors may contribute to its etiology.MethodsIn a large multicenter study of non-familial retinoblastoma, we conducted structured interviews with the parents of 280 cases and 146 controls to elicit information on health during the perinatal period. We used unconditional logistic regression to assess associations between retinoblastoma and parental fertility treatment, birth control use in the year prior to pregnancy, maternal health conditions and the use of prescription medications during pregnancy, and whether mothers breastfed the index child.ResultsBilateral retinoblastoma was related to maternal underweight (body mass index <18.5) prior to pregnancy [Odds Ratio (OR) = 4.5, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.0, 20]. With regards to unilateral retinoblastoma, we observed a negative association with the use of condoms in the year prior to pregnancy (OR = 0.4, CI 0.2, 0.9), and a trend towards a positive association with maternal diabetes (OR = 2.2, CI 0.8, 6.6).ConclusionsResults from our study suggest a role for several maternal health and reproductive factors. Given that there are few epidemiologic studies of retinoblastoma, our results require replication in studies which utilize medical record review.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-1773-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Despite global commitments and efforts, women's equality, particularly at work, has still not been fully realized. Here, we examine whether improved parental leave policies, implemented at the national level, that encourage fathers to participate in caregiving can be effective at reducing unequal gender norms surrounding work. We use data from 1995-2018 that are nationally representative for nine countries, and employ a difference-indifferences approach to estimate the effect that changing parental leave policies has on attitudes towards women's work. Our results indicate that changes to parental leave policy that incentivize or encourage fathers to take time off are associated with improvements in attitudes towards women's equality in the workplace. Specifically, we find that incentives for paternal leave stimulates egalitarian changes in attitudes among both men and women. Our study is the first to longitudinally investigate whether parental leave policies can influence gender equitable norms and our findings support the notion that egalitarian changes in policy can improve gender norms.

No abstract

Objectives We examined associations between parental occupational chemical exposures up to 10 years prior to conception and the risk of sporadic retinoblastoma among offspring. Methods In our multicenter study on non-familial retinoblastoma, parents of 187 unilateral and 95 bilateral cases and 155 friend controls were interviewed by telephone. Exposure information was collected retroactively through a detailed occupational questionnaire that asked fathers to report every job held in the 10 years before conception, and mothers one month prior to and during the index pregnancy. An industrial hygienist reviewed all occupational data and assigned an overall exposure score to each job indicating presence of 9 hazardous agents. Results We estimated elevated odds ratios for unilateral and bilateral retinoblastoma among offspring of fathers who were exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or paints in the 10 years prior to conception. However, only for exposure to paints did confidence limits exclude the null for bilateral disease (OR: 8.76, 95% CI: 1.32-58.09). Maternal prenatal exposure to at least one of the 9 agents was related to increased risk of unilateral disease in their children (OR: 5.25, 95% CI: 1.14-24.16). Fathers exposed to at least one of the 9 agents and who were ≥30 years of age were at increased risk of having a child diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma (OR: 6.59, 95% CI: 1.34-32.42). Conclusions Our results suggest a role for several hazardous occupational exposures in the development of childhood retinoblastoma.

Purpose To examine whether parental pesticide exposure contributes to the development of sporadic retinoblastoma. Design Case-control study. Methods Data were collected by a large multicenter study of sporadic retinoblastoma in which parents of 99 unilateral and 56 bilateral age matched case-control pairs were interviewed by telephone. Retrospective exposure information was collected on the type, location, timing and frequency of residential pesticide use. We used conditional logistic regression analyses to estimate odds ratios for maternal pesticide exposure in the month before or during pregnancy and to assess whether the type of product, and the circumstances under which it was applied, were associated with risk of disease. Results Unilateral retinoblastoma was associated with parental insecticide use (OR, 2.8; CI, 1.1–6.7) and the use of professional lawn or landscape services (OR, 2.8; CI, 1.0–8.2). For bilateral disease we observed large point estimates for several exposures but the small number of cases rendered these results uninformative i.e. resulted in wide confidence intervals. Whether parents used the pesticide inside vs. outside the home did not appear to modify risk estimates for unilateral retinoblastoma (OR, 2.5; CI, 0.9–7.0 vs. OR, 2.5; CI, 1.0–6.5), nor did the type, frequency, timing related to pregnancy or applicator of pesticide used influence estimates to an appreciable degree for disease. Conclusions Our results suggest that parental pesticide exposure before or during pregnancy may play a role in the development of childhood retinoblastoma. Retrospectively collected exposure data introduces the possibility of recall bias, therefore, results should be interpreted cautiously until additional studies are conducted.

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated broad and extensive changes in the way people live and work. While the general subject of working from home has recently drawn increased attention, few studies have assessed gender differences in vulnerability to the potential mental health effects of working from home. Using data from 1,585 workers who participated in the Health, Ethnicity, and Pandemic (HEAP) study, a national survey conducted in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2020, associations of working from home with psychological distress were examined with weighted logistic regression among 1,585 workers and stratified by gender. It was found that workers who worked from home had higher odds of psychological distress

Background:The etiology of childhood cancer is largely unknown, though some research suggests an infectious origin of hematopoietic, central nervous system (CNS) and bone cancers. Methods:We examined parental occupational social contact as a proxy for exposure to infectious agents and risk of childhood cancer. This population-based case-control study utilized a linkage of four Danish data-registries, and included 3581 cases (<17 years, diagnosed 1973-2012) and 358100 age-matched controls. We examined the risks of leukemia, lymphoma, CNS and bone cancer related to high occupational social contact from (1) conception to birth and (2) birth to diagnosis.Results: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and bone cancer were inversely associated with high maternal social contact from conception to birth (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.67-1.10) and birth to diagnosis (OR: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.34-0.86). Children of fathers with high social contact from birth to diagnosis had an increased risk of bone cancers, particularly in rural areas (OR: 1.65, 95% CI: 1.03-2.63). Parental social contact was associated with increased risk of astrocytoma, with