Malosse D, Perron H
Army Medical Research Center, La Tronche, France.
Neuroepidemiology. 1993;12(1):15-27. doi: 10.1159/000110295.
In a previous study we analyzed the possible relationship between dairy product consumption and multiple sclerosis (MS) worldwide. We showed that a good correlation (Spearman rank p = 0.836), statistically strongly significant (p < 0.0001), existed between liquid cow milk consumption and MS prevalence. The interpretation of this strong correlation between MS and milk consumption is still unclear: fresh milk could be considered as a cofactor, but it could also reflect a much stronger association with MS of another unstudied factor, well correlated with milk consumption (yet, this is not the case for latitude). Obviously, the bovine population in each country and, particularly milk cows, has to be considered. In the present study, we analyze the correlations existing between the figures of national cow milk production and MS prevalence in 20 countries. We also analyze the correlations with the whole bovine, ovine, caprine, porcine, horse, poultry, cat and dog populations. Here again we find significant correlations between (i) cow milk production per inhabitant, (ii) national bovine density per inhabitant, and (iii) local bovine geographic density, and MS prevalence. However, these correlations are relatively weaker than that found with fresh liquid milk consumption in our previous study. No correlation is found with other farm animals or with pets in the same countries. The epidemiological significance of these results, suggesting a preponderant role of fresh cow milk, is discussed.
在之前的一项研究中，我们分析了全球范围内乳制品消费与多发性硬化症（MS）之间可能存在的关系。我们发现，液态牛奶消费量与MS患病率之间存在良好的相关性（斯皮尔曼等级相关系数p = 0.836），具有统计学上的高度显著性（p < 0.0001）。MS与牛奶消费之间这种强相关性的解释仍不明确：鲜牛奶可能被视为一个辅助因素，但它也可能反映出与另一个未研究因素的更强关联，而该因素与牛奶消费密切相关（然而，纬度并非如此）。显然，每个国家的牛群数量，尤其是奶牛数量，都必须考虑在内。在本研究中，我们分析了20个国家的全国牛奶产量数据与MS患病率之间的相关性。我们还分析了与整个牛、羊、山羊、猪、马、家禽、猫和狗种群数量的相关性。在此，我们再次发现（i）人均牛奶产量、（ii）人均全国牛群密度和（iii）当地牛群地理密度与MS患病率之间存在显著相关性。然而，这些相关性比我们之前研究中发现的与鲜液态牛奶消费的相关性相对较弱。在同一国家中，未发现与其他农场动物或宠物存在相关性。本文讨论了这些结果的流行病学意义，表明鲜牛奶具有重要作用。
