Association of pregnancies with risk of multiple sclerosis.
Mult Scler
; 28(10): 1630-1640, 2022 09.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35301890
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Pregnancies have an impact on the disease course of multiple sclerosis (MS), but their relationship with MS risk is yet unclear.OBJECTIVE:
To determine the relationships of pregnancies and gynecological diagnoses with MS risk.METHODS:
In this retrospective case-control study, we assessed differences in gynecological International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) code recording rates between women with MS (n = 5720), Crohn's disease (n = 6280), or psoriasis (n = 40,555) and women without these autoimmune diseases (n = 26,729) in the 5 years before diagnosis.RESULTS:
Twenty-eight ICD-10 codes were recorded less frequently for women with MS as compared to women without autoimmune disease, 18 of which are pregnancy-related. After adjustment for pregnancies, all codes unrelated to pregnancies were still negatively associated with MS. In a sensitivity analysis excluding women with evidence for possible demyelinating events before diagnosis, all associations were more pronounced. In comparison to women with psoriasis, most associations could be confirmed; that was not true in comparison to women with Crohn's disease.CONCLUSION:
Our findings provide evidence for a possible protective effect of pregnancies on MS risk likely independent of or in addition to a previously suggested reversed causality. The negative associations of gynecological disorders with disease risk need further investigation. The associations might be shared by different autoimmune diseases.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Psoriasis
/
Autoimmune Diseases
/
Crohn Disease
/
Multiple Sclerosis
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Language:
En
Journal:
Mult Scler
Journal subject:
NEUROLOGIA
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Germany