Socioeconomic status and childhood central nervous system tumors in California.

Purpose: Childhood central nervous system (CNS) tumors are the leading cause of cancer mortality in children. Previous studies have suggested that some childhood cancers, including primary CNS tumors, may be associated with higher socioeconomic status (SES).

Methods: We linked data from the California Cancer Registry to California birth records for children (age 0-19 years) diagnosed with primary CNS tumors during 1988-2011 and analyzed multiple measures of parental SES around the birth of their children and subsequent risk for childhood CNS tumors.

Spatial-Temporal Cluster Analysis of Childhood Cancer in California.

Background: The observance of nonrandom space-time groupings of childhood cancer has been a concern of health professionals and the general public for decades. Many childhood cancers are suspected to have initiated in utero; therefore, we examined the spatial-temporal randomness of the birthplace of children who later developed cancer.

Methods: We performed a space-time cluster analysis using birth addresses of 5,896 cases and 23,369 population-based, age-, sex-, and race/ethnicity-matched controls in California from 1997 to 2007, evaluating 20 types of childhood cancer and three a priori designated subgroups of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

ClustR: A Space-Time Cluster Analysis R Package for Individual-level Data.

Background: Until recently, large individual-level longitudinal data were unavailable to investigate clusters of disease, driving a need for suitable statistical tools. We introduce a robust, efficient, intuitive R package, ClustR, for space-time cluster analysis of individual-level data.

Methods: We developed ClustR and evaluated the tool using a simulated dataset mirroring the population of California with constructed clusters.

Exposure to coarse particulate matter during gestation and term low birthweight in California: Variation in exposure and risk across region and socioeconomic subgroup.

Despite evidence that particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm (PM) or ≤2.5 μm (PM) are associated with several adverse birth outcomes, research on the association between coarse particulate matter (PM) and birth outcomes is scarce, and results have been inconsistent. Furthermore, the literature is unclear whether associations between PM and adverse birth outcomes were driven by PM alone or also by PM exposure.