Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.3389/fendo.2026.1816093

Publication Title

Frontiers in Endocrinology

Volume

17

Pages

1816093

Abstract

Background: Gastroschisis is a right-sided, full-thickness defect with extra-amnionic herniation of abdominal contents directly into the amniotic cavity. The causes of gastroschisis remain obscure. We hypothesized that limited periconceptional sunlight exposure might lead to insufficient vitamin D during fetal development and play a role in gastroschisis etiology.

Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study of infants conceived in Canada between April 2006 and March 2020. We used winter months (i.e., November and December) and northern geographic latitudes as indicators of insufficient sunlight exposure, while summer months (July and August) and southern geographic latitudes were considered as reference. We examined the association of conception month and geographic region with infant gastroschisis using log-binomial regression with a Poisson distribution.

Results: Prevalence of gastroschisis varied substantially by month of conception. The rate of gastroschisis for infants conceived in winter months (4.6 per 10 000) was higher than infants conceived in summer months (2.7 per 10 000; p< 0.001), yielding an adjusted rate ratio (aRR) of 1.73 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.39-2.16]. Gastroschisis prevalence increased from 2.9 per 10000 in the lowest latitude (South) to 10.8 in the highest latitude (far North) (aRR 1.89, 95% CI 1.34-2.67). Multivariate regression model showed that seasonal variations in gastroschisis risk varied with rural vs urban residence (aRR 0.68, 95% CI 0.46-0.99; p< 0.05).

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that periconceptional exposure to sunlight may protect against gastroschisis in offspring. Some literature inconsistencies about hypovitaminosis D and gastroschisis are clarified by interpreting associations as a non-monotonic (inverted U-shaped) relationship between maternal vitamin D status and the risk of gastroschisis. Further studies are warranted to identify biological mechanisms linking hypovitaminosis D with gastroschisis.

Rights

© 2026 Liu, Yong, Chen, Hughes and Hughes.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Data Availability

Article states: "The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation."

Original Publication Citation

Liu, S. L., Yong, S. J., Chen, D. J., Hughes, G. C., & Hughes, C. L. (2026). Seasonal and geographic patterns of gastroschisis in Canada: Protective effect of periconceptional sunlight exposure. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 17, Article 1816093. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2026.1816093

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