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Clinical Trial
. 2003 Aug 9;327(7410):316.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.327.7410.316.

Past exposure to sun, skin phenotype, and risk of multiple sclerosis: case-control study

I A F van der Mei  1 , A-L Ponsonby, T Dwyer, L Blizzard, R Simmons, B V Taylor, H Butzkueven, T Kilpatrick
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Past exposure to sun, skin phenotype, and risk of multiple sclerosis: case-control study

I A F van der Mei et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether past high sun exposure is associated with a reduced risk of multiple sclerosis.

Design: Population based case-control study.

Setting: Tasmania, latitudes 41-3 degrees S.

Participants: 136 cases with multiple sclerosis and 272 controls randomly drawn from the community and matched on sex and year of birth.

Main outcome measure: Multiple sclerosis defined by both clinical and magnetic resonance imaging criteria.

Results: Higher sun exposure when aged 6-15 years (average 2-3 hours or more a day in summer during weekends and holidays) was associated with a decreased risk of multiple sclerosis (adjusted odds ratio 0.31, 95% confidence interval 0.16 to 0.59). Higher exposure in winter seemed more important than higher exposure in summer. Greater actinic damage was also independently associated with a decreased risk of multiple sclerosis (0.32, 0.11 to 0.88 for grades 4-6 disease). A dose-response relation was observed between multiple sclerosis and decreasing sun exposure when aged 6-15 years and with actinic damage.

Conclusion: Higher sun exposure during childhood and early adolescence is associated with a reduced risk of multiple sclerosis. Insufficient ultraviolet radiation may therefore influence the development of multiple sclerosis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Association between sun exposure and multiple sclerosis for different age spans. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for higher (average 2-3 hours or more a day) sun exposure in summer during weekends and holidays. Subgroup is participants who did not believe that sun exposure was an important cause of multiple sclerosis
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