New analysis finds daycare attendance early in life cuts childhood leukemia risk by ...(mutation in the womb followed by a secon...),Health

Bufflers analysis included 14 published studies comprising a total of 6,108 children with leukaemia and 13,704 without the disease. Parents were asked about day care and playgroup attendance, as well as other forms of social interaction with other children. The studies varied in the timing, duration and extent of social contact investigated and in the age groups and types of leukaemia studied. Twelve of the studies found some indication of a protective effect of social interaction with other children, while two found no effect. No study found that social contact increased the risk of childhood leukaemia.

Our analysis concluded that children who attended day care or play groups had about a 30% lower risk of developing leukaemia than those who did not. Combined results for studies of day care attendance specifically before the age of 1 or 2 showed a similarly reduced risk, Buffler said.

The protective effect became even stronger when the researchers omitted from the analysis 5 studies in which the selection of healthy children for the comparison group relied on methods not considered optimal. In that analysis, children exposed to social contact were almost 40% less likely to go on to develop leukaemia than their counterparts.

In a separate report released at the conference on Tuesday by CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA, scientists reviewed the evidence from studies that have investigated a link between infection and childhood leukaemia. They examined not only the idea that early life infections protect against the disease but also whether vaccination plays a role. In addition, they examined two other related areas of research: the role of infection during pregnancy and whether infection might be a factor influencing childhood leukaemia risk
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