ArticleMuscle & nerve2021
Risk factors for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A regional United States case-control study.
Article in Muscle & nerve, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
34 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk factors associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis based on the observational study: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Risk factors of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a global meta-summary.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Exploring the ALS Multistep Model.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Strenuous physical activity is associated with a younger age of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis onset in two independent cohorts.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Occupational lead exposure and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis survival in the Danish National Patient Registry.Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis & frontotemporal degeneration · 2025Article
- Racial and ethnic disparities in ALS: a longitudinal electronic health records study.Therapeutic advances in neurological disorders · 2025Article
- Review
- Genome-Wide and Transcriptome-Wide Association Studies on Northern New England and Ohio Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Cohorts.Neurology. Genetics · 2024Article
- Review
- Brain-body mechanisms contribute to sexual dimorphism in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2024Review
- What do you think caused your ALS? An analysis of the CDC national amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient registry qualitative risk factor data using artificial intelligence and qualitative methodology.Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis & frontotemporal degeneration · 2024Article
- Role of the Exposome in Neurodegenerative Disease: Recent Insights and Future Directions.Annals of neurology · 2024Review
- Avocational exposure associations with ALS risk, survival, and phenotype: A Michigan-based case-control study.Journal of the neurological sciences · 2024Article
- Single-domain magnetic particles with motion behavior under electromagnetic AC and DC fields are a fatal cargo in Metropolitan Mexico City pediatric and young adult early Alzheimer, Parkinson, frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and in ALS patients.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- Enhancing ALS disease management: exploring integrated user value through online communities evidence.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- History of ALS and the competing theories on pathogenesis: IFCN handbook chapter.Clinical neurophysiology practice · 2024Review
- The amyotrophic lateral sclerosis exposome: recent advances and future directions.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2023Review
- Occupational history associates with ALS survival and onset segment.Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis & frontotemporal degeneration · 2023Article
- Nutraceuticals and phytotherapeutics for holistic management of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.3 Biotech · 2023Review
- The influence of environmental risk factors in the development of ALS in the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors at 12 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Most amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cases are considered sporadic, without a known genetic basis, and environmental exposures are thought to play a causal role. To learn more about sporadic ALS etiology, we recruited n = 188 ALS patients from northern New England and Ohio and matched controls 2:1 from the general population of the same regions. Questionnaires evaluated the association between a variety of lifestyle, behavioral (ie, hobbies and activities), and occupational factors and the risk of ALS, including the duration of time between exposure and ALS onset, and exposure frequency. Head trauma was associated with increased ALS risk (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.60 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04-2.45), with significantly greater effects for injuries occurring 10 or more years prior to symptom onset (P = .037). ALS risk was increased for those reporting severe electrical burns (adjusted OR 2.86, 95% CI 1.37-6.03), with odds ratios highest for burns after age 30 (OR 3.14), and for burns 10 or more years prior to symptom onset (OR 3.09). Hobbies involving lead were the most strongly associated with ALS risk (adjusted OR 2.92, 95% CI 1.45-5.91). Exposures to lead 20 or more years prior to diagnosis had larger effect sizes compared to those occurring more recently. Holding a job in mechanics, painting, or construction was associated with ALS. The identification of these specific environmental factors associated with ALS highlight the need for future prospective and laboratory studies to assess causality, biological mechanisms, and find prevention or treatment opportunities.
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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.