ArticleFrontiers in endocrinology2026
Seasonal and geographic patterns of gastroschisis in Canada: protective effect of periconceptional sunlight exposure.
Article in Frontiers in endocrinology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Gastroschisis is a right-sided, full-thickness defect with extra-amnionic herniation of abdominal contents directly into the amniotic cavity. The causes of gastroschisis remain obscure. We hypothesized that limited periconceptional sunlight exposure might lead to insufficient vitamin D during fetal development and play a role in gastroschisis etiology. Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study of infants conceived in Canada between April 2006 and March 2020. We used winter months (i.e., November and December) and northern geographic latitudes as indicators of insufficient sunlight exposure, while summer months (July and August) and southern geographic latitudes were considered as reference. We examined the association of conception month and geographic region with infant gastroschisis using log-binomial regression with a Poisson distribution. Results: Prevalence of gastroschisis varied substantially by month of conception. The rate of gastroschisis for infants conceived in winter months (4.6 per 10 000) was higher than infants conceived in summer months (2.7 per 10 000; p<0.001), yielding an adjusted rate ratio (aRR) of 1.73 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.39-2.16]. Gastroschisis prevalence increased from 2.9 per 10000 in the lowest latitude (South) to 10.8 in the highest latitude (far North) (aRR 1.89, 95% CI 1.34-2.67). Multivariate regression model showed that seasonal variations in gastroschisis risk varied with rural vs urban residence (aRR 0.68, 95% CI 0.46-0.99; p<0.05). Conclusions: Our findings indicate that periconceptional exposure to sunlight may protect against gastroschisis in offspring. Some literature inconsistencies about hypovitaminosis D and gastroschisis are clarified by interpreting associations as a non-monotonic (inverted U-shaped) relationship between maternal vitamin D status and the risk of gastroschisis. Further studies are warranted to identify biological mechanisms linking hypovitaminosis D with gastroschisis.
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.