Abstract
In the Glasgow University Alumni cohort, students with no siblings experienced higher respiratory disease mortality. This risk diminished after accounting for potential confounders. We did not find strong evidence of an association with all cause, coronary heart disease, stroke or stomach cancer mortality. Number of siblings is a proxy for other exposures and exploring its association with specific disease outcomes can help disentangle some of the pathways relating early life exposures to adult mortality.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Stroke Association; Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland; the National Health Service Research and Development Cardiovascular Disease Programme; and the World Cancer Research Fund. B. G. is funded by the Medical Research Council through Research Fellowship in Health of the Public. P. M. is supported by a career scientist award funded by the Research and Development Office for Health and Personal Social Services in Northern Ireland. The Centre for Public Health Research (Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand) is supported by a Programme Grant from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. The authors’ work was independent of the funding sources
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Galobardes, B., McCarron, P., Jeffreys, M. et al. Association between number of siblings and cause-specific mortality in the Glasgow alumni cohort study. Eur J Epidemiol 23, 89–93 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-007-9210-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-007-9210-6