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10 july 2015
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Association between alcohol consumption and multiple sclerosis: a meta-analysis of observational studies

To investigate the association between alcohol consumption and multiple sclerosis risk, we performed a systematic literature search of PubMed, EmBase and Web of Science databases for all relevant articles regarding alcohol and multiple sclerosis. Our meta-analysis consisted of 10 studies, including nine case-controls and one cohort study. The odds ratios (OR) of the association between alcohol consumption and multiple sclerosis were 0.92 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.73-1.17] overall, 0.91 (95 % CI 0.39-2.41) for prospective study, and 0.92 (95 % CI 0.72-1.19) for retrospective studies. In addition, neither subgroup analyses nor sensitivity analyses showed a substantially change in the pooled OR and 95 % CI. Meta-analysisA meta-analysis is a method of summarizing the results of the same research purpose and comprehensiv... showed that there is no evidence that alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of multiple sclerosis. There may be a potential protective effect of alcohol consumption on MS incidence, however, this trend may not be obvious and should be validated by further research.

Additional Info

  • Authors

    Zhu T.; Ye X.; Zhang T.; Lin Z.; Shi W.; Wei X.; Liu Y.; He J.

  • Issue

    Neurol Sci. 2015 Jul 10. [Epub ahead of print]

  • Published Date

    10 july 2015

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