In a retrospective cohort study of all 99 976 live births in Cumbria, 1975Cumbria, -1992, we investigated whether higher levels of community infections during the mother's pregnancy and in early life were risk factors for solid tumours (brain/spinal and other tumours), diagnosed 1975 -1993 under age 15 years. Logistic regression was used to relate risk to incidence of community infections in three prenatal and two postnatal quarters. There was an increased risk of brain/spinal tumours among children exposed around or soon after birth to higher levels of community infections, in particular measles (OR for trend=2.1, 95%CI : 1.3 -3.6, P=0.008) and influenza (OR for exposure=3.3, 95%CI : 1.5 -7.4, P=0.005). There was some evidence of an association between exposure to infections around and soon after birth and risk of other tumours, but this may have been a chance finding. The findings are consistent with other recent epidemiological studies suggesting brain tumours may be associated with perinatal exposure to infections.

The aetiology of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia has been linked with spatially heterogeneous environmental exposures. The presence of spatial clustering would be consistent with geographically localized environmental exposures over long periods of time. The present study is the first to examine spatial clustering amongst children aged 0-4 years using population-based data from Hungary. The data set consisted of 134 children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who were resident in part of Hungary during the period 1981-2000. Two levels of spatial aggregation were examined: counties and settlements. The Potthoff-Whittinghill and Moran I autocorrelation methods were used to test for spatial clustering. Additionally, an evaluation of the environmental changes during the study period was considered. Specifically analyses were carried out on sub-periods to investigate a possible effect of the Chernobyl catastrophe. There was statistically significant spatial clustering both at the county (estimate of extra-Poisson variation [Formula: see text], P = 0.04) and settlement levels (estimate of extra-Poisson variation [Formula: see text], P = 0.0003). At county level, the finding was attributable to clustering amongst female cases, but at settlement level, the finding was limited to male cases. There was significant spatial autocorrelation in the sub-periods immediately following the accident (1986-1990 & 1991-1995), but not before 1986, nor after 1995. A significant autocorrelation was observed during the 5 year period immediately following the accident (1986-1990, global Moran I = 0.1334, p = 0.005). The centre of significant excesses of ALL cases was located in the county of Baranya. Our study is consistent with an environmental aetiology for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children associated with constant exposure to an, as yet unknown, environmental factor in small geographical areas. Although a possible effect of the Chernobyl accident was found in the autocorrelation analysis, the role of chance cannot be excluded.

Suicide rates revealed segmented linear pattern. This is the first detailed trend analysis with risk estimates obtained via joinpoint and negative binomial regression methods simultaneously for age-specific suicide frequencies in Hungary.

This Hungarian study suggests that there was a significant seasonal effect on neonatal and infant mortality at the end of winter between 1963 and 2012. We speculate that this may have been related to respiratory infections.

No abstract