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Seasonality of admissions with multiple sclerosis in Scotland
Author(s) -
Handel Adam E.,
Disanto Giulio,
Jarvis Lynne,
McLaughlin Ryan,
Fries Anastasia,
Ebers George C.,
Ramagopalan Sreeram V.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-1331.2010.03318.x
Subject(s) - seasonality , medicine , demography , medical diagnosis , multiple sclerosis , pediatrics , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics , pathology , sociology
Background and purpose: Previous studies have described a seasonal pattern of MS relapse risk. Vitamin D and infectious triggers are two major candidate environmental risk factors proposed to account for this effect. We aimed to assess MS admissions in Scotland for a possible effect of seasonality. Methods: Acute admissions with MS were obtained from the Scottish Morbidity Register between 1997 and 2009. We compared the pattern of these to admissions with other diagnoses. Results: We obtained data on 7098 MS and 6 243 690 non‐MS acute and day‐case admissions. We found a significant difference in acute MS admissions compared with admissions with other diagnoses ( P = 0.0015). There was a significant excess of Scottish MS admissions in April and June with nadirs in March and October. Conclusions: Admissions with MS show a significant seasonal variation throughout the year. Further work will be needed to identify candidate environmental factors with certainty.