Associations Between Season of Birth and the Risk of Lung Cancer: Epidemiological Findings From Hungary

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Both incidence and mortality of lung cancer are especially high in Hungary. Several investigations suggested recently that month of birth (MOB) is associated with the risks of several nonmalignant disorders as well as some malignant disorders. Only a few studies investigated previously the association between MOB and risk of lung cancer, but they provided inconsistent results. We, therefore, decided to investigate this issue in a large sample of individuals who died from lung cancer. Accordingly, we determined the MOB-associated risk of death by lung cancer between the years 1970 and 2009 among all individuals born in Hungary between 1925 and 1934. The final sample included about two million people. A total of 61,904 deaths by lung cancer occurred in this sample during the period investigated. Using analysis of variance (ANOVA), we did not find significant association between MOB and risk of lung cancer death, either in the whole population investigated (F = 1.492; p = .145) or in the female subpopulation (F = 1.535; p = .129). However, those males born in late spring (May–June) had a lower risk of lung cancer development (F = 2.577; p = .006). Results of the Edwards test also did not suggest consistent association between MOB and risk of lung cancer death in the whole investigated period (1925–1934) in any populations (i.e., whole population or male and female subpopulations). In conclusion, we did not find significant association between MOB and risk of lung cancer in our total sample (although results alluded to a weak association between MOB and risk of lung cancer development among males). The possible associations between MOB and the risk of lung cancer development (or smoking) would require confirmation (or refutation) in large studies from other populations. (Author correspondence: [email protected])

Keywords:

• Epidemiology
• Lung cancer
• Month of birth
• Mortality
• Seasonality
• Smoking

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank László Miholka for his excellent aid in data gathering. All authors (B.K., P.D., Z.R., B.D.) and L.M. were supported by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (HU0125) during the time of writing this paper. The sponsor did not have any influence on design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation of the manuscript.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.