BACKGROUND Previous research has demonstrated that the season of birth may predict development of emotional and behavioral regulation during childhood or adolescence. This study examined whether the season of birth predicts effortful control (i.e., the ability to voluntarily choose course of actions during conflict and to plan for the future) and aggression (i.e., the use of physical force and ...

Early mortality and pup growth during the perinatal period were investigated in pups of the subantarctic fur seal Arctocephalus tropicalis on Amsterdam Island. Mothers that were shorter in body length and expected to be younger, gave birth earlier in the pupping season, compared with longer/older mothers. Pups born early were often still-born, suggesting that shorter/younger mothers that gave b...

OBJECTIVE A season of birth (SoB) bias is said to be present if the SoB pattern for a particular group varies from the pattern within the normal population. Significant biases have been found for several disorders including eating disorders (EDs). This article critically reviews the existing literature on SoB in ED in order to inform future hypothesis-based research. METHOD A literature searc...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether the season of birth and sex are associated with preferences for bedtime among Chinese adults. METHODS A national population-based study on sleep preferences was conducted among Chinese in 2008. A questionnaire was used to collect information on the sleep time of Chinese adults. Analysis of covariance was used to examine the relationship between season of birth an...

BACKGROUND Recent studies suggest a possible role for low ultraviolet radiation exposure and low vitamin D status as a risk factor for food allergy. We hypothesized that children born in autumn/winter months (less sun exposure) might have higher food allergy rates than those born in spring/summer. METHODS We compared IgE-mediated food allergy rates by season of birth in 835 children aged 0-4 ...

Season of birth is associated with later outcomes; what drives this association remains unclear. We consider a new explanation: variation in maternal characteristics. We document large changes in maternal characteristics for births throughout the year; winter births are disproportionally realized by teenagers and the unmarried. Family background controls explain nearly half of season-of-birth's...

BACKGROUND Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure is the main risk factor for cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), but its specific effect in infancy is unknown. We examined whether season of birth, a proxy for solar UVR exposure in the first few months of life, is associated with CMM in childhood through young adulthood. METHODS National cohort study of 3,571,574 persons born in Sweden in 1973-...

Adult onset glioma is a rare cancer which occurs more frequently in Caucasians than African Americans, and in men than women. The etiology of this disease is largely unknown. Exposure to ionizing radiation is the only well established environmental risk factor, and this factor explains only a small percentage of cases. Several recent studies have reported an association between season of birth ...