BACKGROUND The Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS) is an ongoing nationwide birth cohort study launched in January 2011. In this progress report, we present data collected in the first year to summarize selected maternal and infant characteristics. METHODS In the 15 Regional Centers located throughout Japan, the expectant mothers were recruited in early pregnancy at obstetric facili...

BACKGROUND OBJECTIVE To compare the risk of placenta previa at second birth among women who had a cesarean section (CS) at first birth with women who delivered vaginally. METHODS Retrospective cohort study of 399,674 women who gave birth to a singleton first and second baby between April 2000 and February 2009 in England. Multiple logistic regression was used to adjust the estimates for ma...

We examined the association of occupational exposure to handling cytotoxic drugs at work with risk of birth defects among a cohort of female veterinarians. This study is a follow up survey of 321 female participants (633 pregnancies) who participated in the Health Risks of Australian Veterinarian project. Data on pregnancies and exposure during each pregnancy was obtained by self-administered m...

Lifestyle factors are considered important for the pathogenesis of both nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal carcinomas. In Taiwan, the incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma gradually decreased over the past 20 years, whereas that of oropharyngeal carcinoma increased rapidly. To compare the incidence trends of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal carcinomas in Taiwan, the age-period-cohort model was us...

In their Brief Communication analyzing recent breast cancer incidence rates among US women, Brinton et al. ( 1 ) indicated that their trend results for women younger than 40 years are discrepant with a previous analysis ( 2 ). There is no discrepancy. The purpose of the previous analysis ( 2 ) was to show that trends for invasive breast cancer incidence rates among women younger than 50 years a...

Gender differences in educational outcomes were examined in a birth cohort of over 1,000 Christchurch born children studied from the point of school entry to the age of 18. This analysis suggested three major conclusions: i) Throughout the school career of this cohort males achieved less well than females. Gender differences were evident in the results of standardised testing, teacher ratings o...

BACKGROUND Childhood socio-economic position (SEP) is associated with adult smoking status. Previous studies have investigated mediation by educational attainment. The aim of this study is to examine whether childhood psychosocial factors (cognitive ability, psychosocial adjustment and parental involvement) are important in the association between childhood SEP and adult smoking status over and...

OBJECTIVES Promoting unstructured outside play is a promising vehicle to increase children's physical activity (PA). This study investigates if factors of the social environment moderate the relationship between the perceived physical environment and outside play. STUDY DESIGN 1875 parents from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study reported on their child's outside play around age five years, and 1516...

BACKGROUND Maternal labor force participation has increased dramatically over the last 40 years, yet surprisingly little is known about longitudinal patterns of maternal labor force participation in the years after a birth, or how these patterns vary by education. OBJECTIVE We document variation by maternal education in mothers' labor force participation (timing, intensity, non-standard work,...