AN ANALYSIS OF EFFECTS OF FETAL ORDER AND PARENTAL AGE ON RETINOBLASTOMA

Seventy-eight cases of retinoblastoma (Rb) diagnosed at the Eye ENT Hospital, Shanghai Medical University from 1953 to 1985 were studied. The results of multiple logistic regression analysis and conditional probability model showed that high fetal order had a moderate risk (OR=1.28, P<0.05) of developing unilateral Rb. Both unilateral and bilateral cases were independent of parental ages, and no interaction could be found between fetal order and paternal of maternal age; also, the effect of fetal order was not confounded by parental ages.