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Does the changing sex ratio of multiple sclerosis give opportunities for intervention?
Author(s) -
Boström I.,
Landtblom A.M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/ane.12430
Subject(s) - sex ratio , multiple sclerosis , context (archaeology) , male to female , medicine , rate ratio , demography , standardized mortality ratio , digit ratio , epidemiology , confidence interval , biology , environmental health , immunology , population , paleontology , testosterone (patch) , sociology
In several international studies, an increasing women‐to‐men (w/m) ratio in patients with multiple sclerosis ( MS ) has been reported. Such sex ratios have been analysed by year of onset or by year of birth. In a Swedish study, data from the Swedish MS register ( SMS reg) were used to analyse the w/m ratio in Sweden. The sex ratio was analysed both by year of birth (8834 patients) and by year of onset (9098 patients). No increased w/m ratio was seen in this study. The age‐specific sex ratio did not demonstrate any significant changes. However, a new investigation of the sex ratio in Sweden, based on data from all available data sources (19,510 patients), showed a significantly increased w/m ratio of MS in Sweden from 1.70 to 2.67. Environmental factors such as cigarette smoking, hormonal factors and nutrition are of interest in this context, but the cause of the increasing w/m ratio in MS is yet not possible to explain.