The effect of exposure to air toxics on age of diagnosis and subtype of childhood leukemia in Texas
Abstract
This study assessed tripartite associations among air pollution exposure, type of leukemia, and age at diagnosis in children with acute leukemia. The study focused on children who were diagnosed at 4 years old or younger from 1995 to 2011 in Texas. The subjects were identified from records in the Texas Cancer Registry (TCR). The individual-level confounder information was obtained by linking TCR records to birth certificates from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The residential exposure to air toxics of the mother at time of delivery was determined through modeled annual estimates of census tract ambient air levels for benzene, 1,3-butadiene, and polycyclic organic matter (POM), which were available from the U.S. EPA's National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA). A joint modeling technique that involves simultaneously estimating a linear mixed model and a generalized linear mixed model was applied in this study to determine the tripartite association. We found a strong average correlation coefficient (-0.90) between age at diagnosis and subtype of childhood leukemia. No significant associations were found between air pollution exposure and age at diagnosis, and no associations were observed between air pollution exposure and subtype of leukemia. A future study including children diagnosed at older ages should be conducted to further evaluate associations between air toxics and age at diagnosis and subtype of leukemia.
Subject Area
Toxicology|Surgery|Environmental Health|Oncology
Recommended Citation
Chen, Ting-Yu, "The effect of exposure to air toxics on age of diagnosis and subtype of childhood leukemia in Texas" (2013). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI1549823.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI1549823