New article. Level of education and multiple sclerosis risk over a 50 year period. Registrybased sibling study

Kjetil Bjørnstad and co-authors at the Norwegian Multiple Sclerosis Competence Centre and The Norwegian MS Registry and Biobank, have together with colleagues at several Norwegian hospitals recently published an article on education as risk factor for MS in Multiple Sclerosis Journal.

Background

The conflicting results from studies on socioeconomic status (SES) and multiple sclerosis (MS) risk might be due to a change in the distribution of environmental exposures over time or to methodological limitations in previous research.

Objective

To examine the association between SES and MS risk during 50 years.

Methods

We included patients registered in Norwegian MS registries and prevalence studies born between 1930 and 1979, and identified their siblings and parents using the Norwegian Population Registry. Information on education was retrieved from the National Education Registry, categorized into four levels (primary, secondary, undergraduate and graduate) and compared in patients and siblings using conditional logistic regression.

Results

A total of 4494 MS patients and 9193 of their siblings were included in the analyses. Level of education was inversely associated with MS risk (p trend < 0.001) with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.73 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.59–0.90) when comparing the highest and lowest levels. The effect estimates did not vary markedly between participants born before or after the median year of birth (1958), but we observed a significant effect modification by parental education (p = 0.047).

Conclusion

Level of education was inversely associated with MS risk, and the estimates were similar in the earliest and latest birth cohorts.

Reference

Bjørnevik K, Riise T, Benjaminsen E, Celius EG, Dahl OP, Kampman MT, Løken-Amsrud KI, Midgard R, Myhr KM, Torkildsen Ø, Vatne A, Grytten. Level of education and multiple sclerosis risk over a 50-year period: Registry-based sibling study. Mult Scler. 2016 May 5. pii: 1352458516646863. [Epub ahead of print]