Maternal Antibiotic Use Linked to Childhood Cancer; Prenatal Supplements May Reduce Risk: Study

The use of medication during pregnancy carries a potential health risk, including childhood cancer, for the unborn child. However, most drugs examined in previous observational studies have shown inconsistent results with the risk of childhood cancer, and these findings have not been consolidated in drug-specific meta-analyses.

They conducted a systematic search in the databases PubMed and Web of Science for studies on medication use during pregnancy and childhood cancer risk. Studies with exposure to diethylstilbestrol as a known teratogen were excluded. Meta-analyses were conducted if ≥ 3 studies on the same research question were available to calculate pooled estimates for random effects models with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The I2 statistic was calculated to quantify between-study heterogeneity. Statistical significance of I2 was analyzed using Q statistic (P value for heterogeneity (P)). Study quality was assessed with a scoring tool adapted from the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale and ROBINS-E/I.