ArticleBMC medicine2012
Month of birth, vitamin D and risk of immune-mediated disease: a case control study.
Article in BMC medicine, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 134 citations in OpenAlex.
- Vitamin D in early life and later risk of multiple sclerosis-A systematic review, meta-analysis.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- Vitamin D intake and risk of type 1 diabetes: a meta-analysis of observational studies.Nutrients · 2013Pooled it
- Natural environmental factors at birth on risk for rheumatoid arthritis: the impact of season, temperature, latitude, and sunlight exposure.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Cytokine production by newborns: influence of sex and season of birth.Pediatric research · 2023Article
- Assessment of effects of moon phases on hospital outpatient visits: An observational national study.AIMS public health · 2023Article
- Seasonal differences in breastfeeding in the United States: a secondary analysis of longitudinal survey data.International breastfeeding journal · 2022Article
- Review
- Season of birth has no effect on symptoms of depression and anxiety in older adults.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Vitamin D Concentrations at Birth and the Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Early Adulthood: A Danish Population-Based Case-Cohort Study.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Type 1 Diabetes incidence among youth in Utah: A geographical analysis.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Article
- Early life exposures and the risk of inflammatory bowel disease: Systematic review and meta-analyses.EClinicalMedicine · 2021Article
- Article
- Season of birth influences on breastfeeding incidence and duration.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2020Article
- Seasonally variant gene expression in full-term human placenta.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2020Article
- Vitamin D, Autoimmune Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis.Calcified tissue international · 2020Review
- "Photobiomics": Can Light, Including Photobiomodulation, Alter the Microbiome?Photobiomodulation, photomedicine, and laser surgery · 2019Review
- Spring peaks and autumn troughs identified in peripheral inflammatory markers during the peripartum period.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- The Impact of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada 2018: Children and Adolescents with IBD.Journal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology · 2019Article
- Role of vitamin D deficiency in systemic lupus erythematosus incidence and aggravation.Auto- immunity highlights · 2017Article
- Modeling month-season of birth as a risk factor in mouse models of chronic disease: from multiple sclerosis to autoimmune encephalomyelitis.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundA season of birth effect in immune-mediated diseases (ID) such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes has been consistently reported. We aimed to investigate whether season of birth influences the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and systemic lupus erythematosus in addition to multiple sclerosis, and to explore the correlation between the risk of ID and predicted ultraviolet B (UVB) light exposure and vitamin D status during gestation.
methodsThe monthly distribution of births of patients with ID from the UK (n = 115,172) was compared to that of the general population using the Cosinor test. Predicted UVB radiation and vitamin D status in different time windows during pregnancy were calculated for each month of birth and correlated with risk of ID using the Spearman's correlation coefficient.
resultsThe distributions of ID births significantly differed from that of the general population (P = 5e-12) with a peak in April (odds ratio = 1.045, 95% confidence interval = 1.024, 1.067, P < 0.0001) and a trough in October (odds ratio = 0.945, 95% confidence interval = 0.925, 0.966, P < 0.0001). Stratification by disease subtype showed seasonality in all ID but Crohn's disease. The risk of ID was inversely correlated with predicted second trimester UVB exposure (Spearman's rho = -0.49, P = 0.00005) and third trimester vitamin D status (Spearman's rho = -0.44, P = 0.0003).
conclusionsThe risk of different ID in the UK is significantly influenced by the season of birth, suggesting the presence of a shared seasonal risk factor or factors predisposing to ID. Gestational UVB and vitamin D exposure may be implicated in the aetiology of ID.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.