Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36550182›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2022

No evidence for an association between alcohol consumption and Multiple Sclerosis risk: a UK Biobank study.

Sapir Dreyer-Alster, Anat Achiron, Gavin Giovannoni, Benjamin M Jacobs, Ruth Dobson

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Long-Term Excessive Alcohol Consumption Enhances Myelination in the Mouse Nucleus Accumbens.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  3. Alcohol Consumption and Autoimmune Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Sapir Dreyer-AlsterMultiple Sclerosis Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat-Gann, Israel.
Anat AchironMultiple Sclerosis Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat-Gann, Israel.
Gavin GiovannoniPreventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University London, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ, UK.
Benjamin M Jacobs *Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University London, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ, UK.
Ruth Dobson *Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University London, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ, UK. ruth.dobson@qmul.ac.uk.
Queen Mary University of London · GBSheba Medical Center · IL

Funding

Medical Research Council MC_PC_17228Medical Research Council MR/V028766/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has been linked to a variety of environmental risk factors, including smoking, Epstein-Barr Virus infection, and childhood obesity. There is some evidence to support a relationship between alcohol consumption and MS risk, but this finding has been inconsistent across cohorts. A protective link between alcohol consumption and MS risk is seen in Swedish and Danish cohorts, however evidence from other cohorts and mendelian randomisation studies have failed to support this relationship. We assessed the relationship between alcohol consumption (never vs. ever drinking) and MS in 409,228 individuals (2100 with MS) from UK Biobank (UKB). We used multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for age and sex. To determine whether there was evidence of statistical interaction between alcohol consumption and HLA-DRB1*15:01 genotype, we calculated interaction on the additive and multiplicative scales. We analysed data from 2100 individuals with MS (72.3% female, median age at recruitment 56) and 407,128 controls (53.9% female, median age at recruitment 58). We found no evidence for an association between alcohol consumption and MS risk (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 0.61-2.08, p = 0.314). As expected, the HLA-DRB1*15:01 allele was strongly associated with MS risk (OR = 2.72, 95% CI 2.72-2.72, p < 2 × 10

Indexed as

Epstein-Barr Virus InfectionsMultiple SclerosisPediatric ObesityAlcohol DrinkingBiological Specimen BanksChildFemaleHerpesvirus 4, HumanHLA-DRB1 ChainsHumansLogistic ModelsMaleRisk FactorsUnited KingdomHLA-DRB1 Chains

Identifiers

PMID36550182
PMCPMC9780204
OpenAlexW4312075848

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.