ArticleBMC neurology2014
Environmental exposures and the risk of multiple sclerosis investigated in a Norwegian case-control study.
Article in BMC neurology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Age at menarche and risk of multiple sclerosis (MS): a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC neurology · 2019Pooled it
- Environmental and Familial Risk Factors for Multiple Sclerosis: Insights from a Saudi Arabian Cohort.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Does Age at Menarche Differ Between Patients With Multiple Sclerosis and Healthy Controls?: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of family & reproductive health · 2025Review
- The Effect of Smoking and Passive Exposure on Multiple Sclerosis and Correlation with IL17 & IL23 Levels.Noro psikiyatri arsivi · 2025Article
- Effect of puberty on the immune system: Relevance to multiple sclerosis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Review
- Risk factors of multiple sclerosis in Aseer region, Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaNeurosciences (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) · 2021Article
- Pregnancy does not modify the risk of MS in genetically susceptible women.Neurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation · 2020Article
- Seroprevalence of anti-Journal of parasitic diseases : official organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology · 2020Article
- Relationship between the use of electronic devices and susceptibility to multiple sclerosis.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2019Article
- Effect of age at puberty on risk of multiple sclerosis: A mendelian randomization study.Neurology · 2019Article
- [Multiple sclerosis and hepatitis B vaccination : What does the verdict of the European Court of Justice on liability after vaccination mean?]Der Nervenarzt · 2018Review
- Demographic and disease characteristics of multiple sclerosis in the Southwest Region of Saudi Arabia.Neurosciences (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) · 2018Article
- Age at Menarche and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis: Current Progress From Epidemiological Investigations.Frontiers in immunology · 2018Review
- Why monkeys do not get multiple sclerosis (spontaneously): An evolutionary approach.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2018Review
- The interaction between smoking and HLA genes in multiple sclerosis: replication and refinement.European journal of epidemiology · 2017Article
- Evaluating the association of allergies with multiple sclerosis susceptibility risk and disease activity in a pediatric population.Journal of the neurological sciences · 2017Article
- Disability Progression in Multiple Sclerosis Is Affected by the Emergence of Comorbid Arterial Hypertension.Journal of clinical neurology (Seoul, Korea) · 2016Article
- Socio-economic status and lifestyle factors are associated with achalasia risk: A population-based case-control study.World journal of gastroenterology · 2016Article
- Article
- Time trends in the incidence and prevalence of multiple sclerosis in Norway during eight decades.Acta neurologica Scandinavica · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSeveral environmental exposures, including infection with Epstein-Barr virus, low levels of vitamin D and smoking are established risk factors for multiple sclerosis (MS). Also, high hygienic standard and infection with parasites have been proposed to influence MS risk. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of various environmental exposures on MS risk in a Norwegian cohort, focusing on factors during childhood related to the hygiene hypothesis.
methodsA questionnaire concerning environmental exposures, lifestyle, demographics and comorbidity was administrated to 756 Norwegian MS patients and 1090 healthy controls. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for the risk of MS associated with the variables infectious mononucleosis, severe infection during childhood, vaccination and animals in the household during childhood. Age, gender, HLA-DRB1*15:01, smoking and infectious mononucleosis were included as covariates. General environmental exposures, including tobacco use, were also evaluated.
resultsInfectious mononucleosis was confirmed to be significantly associated with increased MS risk, also after adjusting for the covariates (OR = 1.79, 95% CI: 1.12-2.87, p = 0.016). The controls more often reported growing up with a cat and/or a dog in the household, and this was significant for ownership of cat also after adjusting for the covariates (OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.40-0.78, p = 0.001). More patients than controls reported smoking and fewer patients reported snuff use.
conclusionsIn this Norwegian MS case-control study of environmental exposures, we replicate that infectious mononucleosis and smoking are associated with increased MS risk. Our data also indicate a protective effect on MS of exposure to cats during childhood, in accordance with the hypothesis that risk of autoimmune diseases like MS may increase with high hygienic standard.
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