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Amy Hagopian, Riyadh Lafta, Jenan Hassan, Scott Davis, Dana Mirick, and Tim Takaro.  Trends in Childhood Leukemia in Basrah, Iraq, 1993–2007. American Journal of Public Health: June 2010, Vol. 100, No. 6, pp. 1081-1087.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.164236

Accepted on: Jun 15, 2009

Trends in Childhood Leukemia in Basrah, Iraq, 1993–2007

Amy Hagopian, MHA, PhD, Riyadh Lafta, MD, PhD, Jenan Hassan, MD, Scott Davis, PhD, Dana Mirick, MS, and Tim Takaro, MD, MS, MPH

Amy Hagopian is with the Department of Global Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, Seattle. Riyadh Lafta is with the Medical School at Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq. Jenan Hassan is with the Paediatric Department at Basrah University School of Medicine, Basrah, Iraq. Scott Davis is with the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Division of Public Health Sciences, Seattle, WA. Dana Mirick is with the Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA. Tim Takaro is with the Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

Correspondence should be sent to Amy Hagopian, Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington, 4534 11th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105 (e-mail: ). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the “Reprints/Eprints” link.

Peer Reviewed

Contributors

A. Hagopian and T. Takaro originated and designed the research project after meeting J. Hassan, who collected the data on which the article is based and participated in editing the article. R. Lafta traveled to Basrah, Iraq, to collect data from the cancer clinic and participated in the data analysis and writing and editing of the article. S. Davis was the lead epidemiologic advisor on the project and designed the approach to the statistical analysis. D. Mirick was the lead statistician on the project.


ABSTRACT

Objectives. Through a sister-university relationship between the University of Basrah and the University of Washington, we analyzed Ibn Ghazwan Hospital's leukemia registry data to evaluate trends in childhood leukemia since 1993.

Methods. We documented leukemia cases among children aged 0 to 14 years for each of the last 15 years. Population data were obtained from a 1997 census and various subsequent estimates to calculate rates.

Results. We observed 698 cases of childhood leukemia between 1993 and 2007, ranging between 15 cases (2.6 per 100 000 annual rate) in the first year and 56 cases (6.9 per 100 000 annual rate) in the final year, reaching a peak of 97 cases in 2006 (12.2 per 100 000 annual rate).

Conclusions. Childhood leukemia rates in Basrah more than doubled over a 15-year period. The test for trend was significant (P = .03). Basrah's childhood leukemia rate compared unfavorably with neighboring Kuwait and nearby Oman, as well as the United States, the European Union, and other countries.

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