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Month of birth, vitamin D and risk of immune-mediated disease: a case control study

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Medicine, July 2012
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (86th percentile)

Citations

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122 Dimensions

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178 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
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Title
Month of birth, vitamin D and risk of immune-mediated disease: a case control study
Published in
BMC Medicine, July 2012
DOI 10.1186/1741-7015-10-69
Pubmed ID
Authors

Giulio Disanto, George Chaplin, Julia M Morahan, Gavin Giovannoni, Elina Hyppönen, George C Ebers, Sreeram V Ramagopalan

Abstract

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: A season of birth effect in immune-mediated diseases (ID) such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes has been consistently reported. We aimed to investigate whether season of birth influences the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and systemic lupus erythematosus in addition to multiple sclerosis, and to explore the correlation between the risk of ID and predicted ultraviolet B (UVB) light exposure and vitamin D status during gestation. METHODS: The monthly distribution of births of patients with ID from the UK (n = 115,172) was compared to that of the general population using the Cosinor test. Predicted UVB radiation and vitamin D status in different time windows during pregnancy were calculated for each month of birth and correlated with risk of ID using the Spearman's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The distributions of ID births significantly differed from that of the general population (P = 5e-12) with a peak in April (odds ratio = 1.045, 95% confidence interval = 1.024, 1.067, P <0.0001) and a trough in October (odds ratio = 0.945, 95% confidence interval = 0.925, 0.966, P <0.0001). Stratification by disease subtype showed seasonality in all ID but Crohn's disease. The risk of ID was inversely correlated with predicted second trimester UVB exposure (Spearman's rho = -0.49, P = 0.00005) and third trimester vitamin D status (Spearman's rho = -0.44, P = 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of different ID in the UK is significantly influenced by the season of birth, suggesting the presence of a shared seasonal risk factor or factors predisposing to ID. Gestational UVB and vitamin D exposure may be implicated in the aetiology of ID.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 17 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 178 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Russia 1 <1%
Portugal 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Unknown 175 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 25 14%
Researcher 24 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 23 13%
Student > Master 21 12%
Student > Postgraduate 16 9%
Other 40 22%
Unknown 29 16%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 81 46%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 17 10%
Nursing and Health Professions 12 7%
Immunology and Microbiology 5 3%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 5 3%
Other 18 10%
Unknown 40 22%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 58. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 21 November 2023.
All research outputs
#734,512
of 25,478,886 outputs
Outputs from BMC Medicine
#519
of 4,027 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,657
of 177,885 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Medicine
#7
of 43 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,478,886 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,027 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 45.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 177,885 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 43 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.