OBJECTIVE Season of birth has repeatedly been found to be a risk indicator for adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Several explanations for this finding have been put forward but no conclusion has been reached. In the current study, we explored the role of sociodemographic and biological factors in the association between season of birth and child IQ. DESIGN In a prenatally recruited birth c...

OBJECTIVES This study examines the influence of socioeconomic circumstances in childhood (childhood SES) and adulthood (adult SES) on timing of first birth by age 37. METHODS A longitudinal study of a 1972-1973 New Zealand birth cohort collected information on socioeconomic characteristics from age 3-32 and reproductive histories at 21, 26, 32 and 38; information on first birth was available ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim was to describe rates of loss and assessment of representativeness during 43 years of a national birth cohort study. DESIGN The study population is a class stratified random sample of all single, legitimate births that occurred during one single week in 1946; it has been studied at regular intervals, so far to 1989. MAIN RESULTS Losses through death and emigration we...

BACKGROUND Coeliac disease (CD) incidence has increased in recent decades, characterised by variations according to sex, age at diagnosis, year of birth, month of birth and region of birth. Genetic susceptibility and exposure to gluten are the necessary factors in CD aetiology, although several environmental factors are considered. METHODS A nationwide prospective cohort longitudinal study wa...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the association among birth weight, intrauterine growth, and nutritional status in childhood with grip strength in young adults from the 1982 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort. METHODS In 1982, the hospital live births of Pelotas were followed. In 2012, grip strength was evaluated using a hand dynamometer and the best of the six measurements was use...

OBJECTIVE To study the epidemiology of retinoblastoma in Taiwan from 1998 to 2011. DESIGN This was a retrospective population-based cohort study using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. RESULTS The present study included 154 patients (92 males, 62 females) with retinoblastoma and the documented overall retinoblastoma incidence was 1 in 17 373 live births without a notab...

Trophoblast cells (TBCs) form the blastocyst-derived component of the placenta and play essential roles in fetal maintenance. The proinflammatory cytokine IFN-gamma plays a central role in activating cellular immunity, controlling cell proliferation, and inducing apoptosis. IFN-gamma is secreted by uterine NK cells in the placenta during pregnancy and in mice is required for proper formation of...