An etiologic study of Paget's disease.

The objective of this case-control questionnaire study was to determine whether a history of measles or of dog ownership occurred with different frequencies in Paget's disease patients and in age- and sex-matched controls. Clustering of Paget's disease cases in geographic foci was also looked for, as well as a difference in the prevalence of Paget's disease according to whether the subsoil was composed of rocks from the primary or the tertiary-quaternary geologic periods. Completed questionnaires were obtained from 247 Paget's disease patients and 281 controls. Paget's disease was significantly associated with a history of measles (odds ratio, 2.46) but not with a history of mumps (odds ratio, 0.79) or with dog ownership (odds ratio, 0.97). The 174 cases of Paget's disease in subjects from the study district were distributed throughout the district, with no geographic clustering. This result was confirmed by the analysis of the ratios of Paget's disease cases over the total population in each county in the study district. The incidence of Paget's disease was slightly higher in areas with a primary subsoil, but the difference was not statistically significant (chi-square, 0.79; P = 0.37).