Paternal intake of folate and vitamins B6 and B12 before conception and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Authors

Helen D. Bailey
Margaret Miller, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Kathryn R. Greenop, University of Western Australia
Carol Bower, University of Western Australia
John Attia, University of Newcastle
Glenn M. Marshall, University of New South Wales
Bruce K. Armstrong, University of Sydney
Elizabeth Milne, University of Western Australia

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Kluwer Academic Publishers

Faculty

Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science

School

Child Health Promotion Research Centre

RAS ID

18686

Comments

Bailey H.D., Miller M., Greenop K.R., Bower C., Attia J., Marshall G.M., Armstrong B.K., Milne E. (2014). Paternal intake of folate and vitamins B6 and B12 before conception and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cancer Causes and Control, 25(12), 1615-1625. Available here

Abstract

Purpose: 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.Methods: Data on dietary folate intake during the 6 months before the child’s conception were collected from 285 case fathers and 595 control fathers using a dietary questionnaire. Nutrient intake was quantified using a customized computer software package based on Australian food composition databases. Data on folate intake were analyzed using unconditional logistic regression, adjusting for study-matching variables, total energy, and potentially confounding variables. In a subset of 229 cases and 420 controls, data on vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 intake were also analyzed.Results: 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 (0.97, 2.36). The use of supplements containing folate and vitamins B6 or B12 was rare.Conclusions: 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.

DOI

10.1007/s10552-014-0466-3

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