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Maternal residential pesticide use during pregnancy and risk of malignant childhood brain tumors: A pooled analysis of the ESCALE and ESTELLE studies (SFCE)
Author(s) -
Vidart d'Egurbide Bagazgoïtia Nicolas,
Bailey Helen D.,
Orsi Laurent,
Lacour Brigitte,
GuerriniRousseau Léa,
Bertozzi AnneIsabelle,
Leblond Pierre,
FaureConter Cécile,
Pellier Isabelle,
Freycon Claire,
Doz François,
Puget Stéphanie,
Ducassou Stéphane,
Clavel Jacqueline
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.31073
Subject(s) - pregnancy , medicine , odds ratio , confidence interval , epidemiology , recall bias , logistic regression , population , environmental health , etiology , telephone interview , demography , pediatrics , psychiatry , pathology , biology , social science , genetics , sociology
Some previous epidemiological studies have suggested that pesticide exposure during pregnancy may have a possible role in the development of childhood brain tumors (CBT). We pooled data from two French national population‐based, case–control studies to investigate the association between maternal residential use of pesticides during pregnancy and the risk of CBT. The mothers of 437 CBT cases and 3,102 controls aged under 15 years who resided in France at diagnosis/interview, frequency‐matched by age and gender, answered a structured telephone interview conducted by trained interviewers. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). CBT was significantly associated with the maternal home use of pesticides during pregnancy (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2–1.8) and, more specifically, with insecticide (OR 1.4, 1.2–1.8). We could not draw any conclusions about herbicides and/or fungicides because few women used them during pregnancy and most of these mothers also used insecticides. Although potential recall bias cannot be excluded, our findings of this pooled analysis support the hypothesis that residential maternal use of pesticides during pregnancy and particularly insecticides may increase the risk of CBT. Future investigations to verify these findings and to explore for CBT subtypes and dose–response are necessary to have a better understanding of the possible role of pesticides in etiology of CBT.