Authors:
Bailey HD, Miller M, Greenop KR, Bower C, Attia J, Marshall GM, Armstrong BK, Milne E
Authors notes:
Cancer Causes and Control. 2014;Online:1-11
Keywords:
Child, Epidemiology, Folate, Leukemia, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B6
Abstract:
We investigated whether paternal dietary intake of folate before conception is associated with the risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in a nationwide case-control study.
No consistent associations were seen with paternal dietary intake of folate or vitamin B6.
Higher levels of paternal dietary vitamin B12 were appeared to be associated with an increased risk of childhood ALL, with those in the highest tertile of consumption having an OR of 1.51.
The use of supplements containing folate and vitamins B6 or B12 was rare.
We did not find any biologically plausible evidence that paternal nutrition in the period leading up to conception was associated with childhood ALL.
Our finding for vitamin B12 may be a chance finding, given the number of analyses performed, or be attributable to participation bias because parents with a tertiary education had the lowest level of B12 intake and tertiary education was more common among control than case parents.