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May 2016 Moms
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Caffeine and Childhood Leukemia Links?

TaylorKangTaylorKang member
in May 2016 Moms
Hi ladies,

I came across a study today from 2014 that was showing possibilities of an increased risk in Childhood Leukemia when the mother drank 2+ cups of coffee a day - the risk went up to 60%. I am not too worried about that, because I believe I stay within my limit of 150-300 mg of caffeine daily. However, another website that was talking about the same study mentioned something about even drinking one cup of coffee could increase the risk to 20%. Now, that, I do go over...and it just makes me feel bad and weird that I'm only hearing anything about this at 35 weeks. I know the study actually hasn't been proven and apparently the cup sizes of coffee and the way it was made is not taken into factor, nor was alcohol used as a control.

Does anybody know anything more about this study? Care to shed any light on it for me? I have tried staying well within my limit, having a cup of coffee or a latte in the a.m. and sometimes some soda in the later part of the day (but I can't see myself making it over 300 @.@)
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Re: Caffeine and Childhood Leukemia Links?

  • ruggles0909ruggles0909 member
    Don't know the specifics of the study but it sounds like it's a correlation. This means while there might be a relationship, causation cannot be proven. Studies on pregnant women are difficult to conduct and so this study is more than likely a self report after the fact, which means lots of confounding variables. Doesn't mean that there is or is not a relationship but hopefully this takes some of the stress off. 
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  • TaylorKangTaylorKang member
    Here is one of the articles (yes, dailymail, I know I know, but I did see that scientific journals were posted about this study) : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2727473/Mum-s-coffees-raise-baby-s-leukaemia-risk.html

    I did come across this article (as well as the comments), which made me feel better: https://www.mommyish.com/2014/08/19/coffee-during-pregnancy-increases-leukemia-risk/


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  • tripledaggerWed95976tripledaggerWed95976 member
    edited April 2016
    Since it is citing the journal of obstetrics and pediatrics, it is definitely a reputable source.  However it is really important to note that it is just saying the RISK is increased.   Wording like this can be very misleading.   Here is an excerpt to explain what I mean by this...
    "What does risk mean when it’s part of health news? Every day, news stories report medical findings. How risk is described can change how you handle your health. Perhaps a certain medicine carries a 50% increased risk of stroke. That sounds scary. Does it mean that 50%—or half—of everyone taking the drug will have a stroke? No, it doesn’t. Let’s start by assuming that in every 1,000 people who are not taking the medicine, two people will have a stroke. A 50% increase means 1 more person, or 3 total out of 1,000, will have a stroke while on this drug. Stroke can be a devastating illness, but maybe 3 out of 1,000 doesn’t seem as big a risk as 50% sounds."

    so, while caffeine may very well increase the risk of child leukemia, it may only be by an extremely small amount.  The site I read the study on offered no numbers... but I would be interested in seeing their actual statistical findings
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  • ayeshaoharaayeshaohara member
    If that were a well established link and the risk increase was significant then they would be telling us not to drink coffee while pregnant. Sorta like the link between alcohol and fetal issues is well known and hence they warn about it. I wouldn't be too worried if I were you.
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  • TaylorKangTaylorKang member
    tripledaggerWed95976 said:
    Since it is citing the journal of obstetrics and pediatrics, it is definitely a reputable source.  However it is really important to note that it is just saying the RISK is increased.   Wording like this can be very misleading.   Here is an excerpt to explain what I mean by this...
    "What does risk mean when it’s part of health news? Every day, news stories report medical findings. How risk is described can change how you handle your health. Perhaps a certain medicine carries a 50% increased risk of stroke. That sounds scary. Does it mean that 50%—or half—of everyone taking the drug will have a stroke? No, it doesn’t. Let’s start by assuming that in every 1,000 people who are not taking the medicine, two people will have a stroke. A 50% increase means 1 more person, or 3 total out of 1,000, will have a stroke while on this drug. Stroke can be a devastating illness, but maybe 3 out of 1,000 doesn’t seem as big a risk as 50% sounds."

    so, while caffeine may very well increase the risk of child leukemia, it may only be by an extremely small amount.  The site I read the study on offered no numbers... but I would be interested in seeing their actual statistical findings
    Are these the numbers you were looking for?

    RESULTS:

    Compared with non/lowest drinkers, the combined odds ratio regarding the relationship of maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy and childhood AL was 1.22 (95% CI, 1.04-1.43) for ever drinkers, 1.16 (95% CI, 1.00-1.34) for low to moderate-level drinkers, and 1.72 (95% CI, 1.37-2.16) for high-level drinkers. When analysis was conducted by subtypes of childhood AL, maternal coffee consumption (high-level drinkers vs non/lowest drinkers) was statistically significantly associated with childhood ALL (1.65; 95% CI, 1.28-2.12) and childhood AML (1.58; 95% CI, 1.20-2.08). We observed the linear dose-response relationship of coffee consumption and childhood AL (P for nonlinearity = .68), including childhood ALL and childhood AML; with increased coffee consumption, the risk of childhood AL increased.

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