Neurology 2022 01 8;98(3):e267-e278. Epub 2021 Dec 8.
From the Australian National University Medical School (P.S.), Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing (N.C.), and National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (R.L.), Australian National University, Canberra; Division of Epidemiology (L.F.B.), University of California Berkeley; Department of Pediatrics (S.R., C.C.), University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City; Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center (J.H.) and Department of Neurology (E.W.), University of California San Francisco; Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center (G.S.A.), Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, CA; MS Comprehensive Care Center (L.K.), New York University Langone, NY; Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders Program (L.B., M. Gorman), Boston Children's Hospital, MA; Division of Pediatric Neurology (M.C.), University of Utah Primary Children's Hospital, Salt Lake City; Partners Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center (T.C.), Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Boston; Department of Radiology (M. Goyal), Washington University St. Louis, MO; Department of Neurology (B.G.), University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas; Pediatric-Onset Demyelinating Diseases and Autoimmune Encephalitis Center (S.M.), St. Louis Children's Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine, MO; Mayo Clinic Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center (M.R.), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Department of Pediatric Neurology (J.R.), Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL; Children's Hospital Colorado (T.S.), University of Colorado, Denver; Division of Neurology (A.W.), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA; Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center (B.W.-G.), Jacobs Neurological Institute, State University of New York Buffalo; and Department of Neurosciences (J.G.), University of California San Diego.
Background And Objectives: This study aims to determine the contributions of sun exposure and ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure to risk of pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS).
Methods: Children with MS and controls recruited from multiple centers in the United States were matched on sex and age. Multivariable conditional logistic regression was used to investigate the association of time spent outdoors daily in summer, use of sun protection, and ambient summer UVR dose in the year before birth and the year before diagnosis with MS risk, with adjustment for sex, age, race, birth season, child's skin color, mother's education, tobacco smoke exposure, being overweight, and Epstein-Barr virus infection. Read More