ArticleNeurology2013
Prediagnostic body fat and risk of death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: the EPIC cohort.
Article in Neurology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 151 citations in OpenAlex.
- eHealth tools to assess the neurological function for research, in absence of the neurologist: a systematic review, part II (hardware).Journal of neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Hypercaloric enteral nutrition in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2014Trial
- EPIC4ND-European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition follow-up for neurodegenerative diseases.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Redefining ALS: Large-scale proteomic profiling reveals a prolonged pre-diagnostic phase with immune, muscular, metabolic, and brain involvement.Research square · 2025Article
- Redefining ALS: Large-scale proteomic profiling reveals a prolonged pre-diagnostic phase with immune, muscular, metabolic, and brain involvement.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Exploring the Role of Diabetes in ALS: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Neural Metabolic Networks: Key Elements of Healthy Brain Function.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Review
- The obesity pandemic and its impact on non-communicable disease burden.Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2025Review
- Association Between Early-Life and Premorbid Measurements of Body Composition and Risk of Motor Neuron Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study in the UK Biobank.Annals of neurology · 2025Article
- Nutritional and Microbiota-Based Approaches in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: From Prevention to Treatment.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Mis-localization of endogenous TDP-43 leads to ALS-like early-stage metabolic dysfunction and progressive motor deficits.Molecular neurodegeneration · 2024Article
- A Delphi consensus to identify the key screening tests/questions for a digital neurological examination for epidemiological research.Journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Predictors of Mortality in Veterans with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Respiratory Status and Speech Disorder at Presentation.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2024Article
- Mitochondria: A Promising Convergent Target for the Treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.Cells · 2024Review
- Advances in molecular pathology, diagnosis, and treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Review
- Nutritional and metabolic factors in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2023Review
- Loss of hypothalamic MCH decreases food intake in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Acta neuropathologica · 2023Article
- Body mass index associates with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis survival and metabolomic profiles.Muscle & nerve · 2023Article
- When months matter; modelling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnostic pathway of Motor Neurone Disease (MND).PloS one · 2023Article
- Potential Applications for Growth Hormone Secretagogues Treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
45 authors at 8 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate for the first time the association between body fat and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with an appropriate prospective study design.
methodsThe EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study included 518,108 individuals recruited from the general population across 10 Western European countries. At recruitment, information on lifestyle was collected and anthropometric characteristics were measured. Cox hazard models were fitted to investigate the associations between anthropometric measures and ALS mortality.
resultsTwo hundred twenty-two ALS deaths (79 men and 143 women) occurred during the follow-up period (mean follow-up = 13 years). There was a statistically significant interaction between categories of body mass index and sex regarding ALS risk (p = 0.009): in men, a significant linear decrease of risk per unit of body mass index was observed (hazard ratio = 0.93, 95% confidence interval 0.86-0.99 per kg/m(2)); among women, the risk was more than 3-fold increased for underweight compared with normal-weight women. Among women, a significant risk reduction increasing the waist/hip ratio was also evident: women in the top quartile had less than half the risk of ALS compared with those in the bottom quartile (hazard ratio = 0.48, 95% confidence interval 0.25-0.93) with a borderline significant p value for trend across quartiles (p = 0.056).
conclusionIncreased prediagnostic body fat is associated with a decreased risk of ALS mortality.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.