Department of Neurology, Grand River Hospital, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
Can J Neurol Sci. 2011 Jan;38(1):98-105. doi: 10.1017/s0317167100011124.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease with purported environmental causes. Consistent correlations have been found in various settings for latitude, smoking exposure, sunlight, and vitamin D deficiency. We analysed the contribution of various environmental factors to the risk of developing MS from a population perspective.
We collated global data of MS prevalence from 54 studies over the previous ten years and calculated the degree of risk contributed by latitude, longitude, ultraviolet radiation (from NASA satellite data and formulae for available sunlight hours), population smoking rates (from WHO data), gender, study date, study demographics, and several socioeconomic factors. We report a very significant negative correlation between MS prevalence and available ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
The lack of available UV radiation outweighs other factors by at least 20 fold (p < 10⁻⁸) from single variate regression analysis. Multiple regression analysis revealed that latitude and longitude are also significant factors; smoking may also provide a very minimal role. The eight prevalence studies from Scandinavia produced prevalences that were lower than expected, given their global geospatial positioning.
The available ultraviolet radiation is a significant environmental factor, more so than all the other factors examined.
多发性硬化症（MS）是一种据称与环境因素有关的疾病。在不同的环境中，纬度、吸烟暴露、阳光和维生素 D 缺乏与 MS 之间存在一致的相关性。我们从人群角度分析了各种环境因素对 MS 发病风险的贡献。
我们收集了过去十年中来自 54 项研究的全球 MS 患病率数据，并计算了纬度、经度、紫外线辐射（来自 NASA 卫星数据和可用阳光小时的计算公式）、人口吸烟率（来自世卫组织数据）、性别、研究日期、研究人群统计学和几个社会经济因素对 MS 发病风险的贡献程度。我们报告了 MS 患病率与可用紫外线（UV）辐射之间存在非常显著的负相关。
单变量回归分析表明，缺乏可用的 UV 辐射至少是其他因素的 20 倍（p < 10⁻⁸）。多变量回归分析显示，纬度和经度也是重要因素；吸烟也可能起到非常微小的作用。来自斯堪的纳维亚的八项患病率研究的结果低于预期，这与它们在全球地理定位有关。
可用的紫外线辐射是一个重要的环境因素，比我们所研究的其他因素都更为重要。
