Socioeconomic Status And Other Characteristics In Childhood Leukemia

Some epidemiological studies have found a relationship between socio-economic status (SES) andsome childhood cancers. In the present study an attempt was made to assess socio-economical classin a case-control study. A case- control study conducted on 100 case of acute lymphoblasticleukemia age 1-14 years in Department of Pediatric Oncology of Dr sheikh Hospital in Mashhad –Iran and matched on age and sex to 400 healthy controls. Data was collected by interview using aquestionnaire. Data analyzed by chi-square test and Regression analysis. 95% confidence intervalswere used to measure the relation between childhood A.L.L and parental education, income status,father s job (Socioeconomic status), number of children, birth score and paternal smoking. Therewas a significant difference in parental education level (P-value=0.02, P-value=0.01), income status(P-value =0. 01), number of children (P-value=0), birth score (P-value=0 ) , father s job (Pvalue=0.02)and paternal smoking between two groups. Regression analysis showed the risk ofchildhood A.L.L associated with paternal smoking (P- value =0, OR=12.6, CI 95%, 7.4-21.5) andfather s high risk job (P-value=., OR=11.9, CI 95%, 6.2-22.9). Most of case (50%) and control group(35%) located in upper lower and Lower middle class of socioeconomic status respectively. There is ameaningful different between Socioeconomic status in two groups (p=0.01).But risk of childhoodA.L.L did not associated with Socioeconomic status. The results suggest that paternal smoking andfather’s high risk job are related to risk of childhood leukemia. It should be considered for planningsupport.