Date of Award
January 2012
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Public Health (MPH)
Department
School of Public Health
First Advisor
Andrew DeWan
Second Advisor
Daniel Pelletier
Abstract
The field of multiple sclerosis (MS) is in need of a consistent method of measuring smoking to examine its role in disease risk and severity. A pilot study was conducted to examine the association between smoking and disease risk in MS cases (n=26) and controls (n=26). Disease severity within MS patients was assessed through clinical and radiological outcomes. These measures were confirmed within a larger dataset of MS patients (n=512) that additionally contained genotyping information. There were no significant differences in disease risk or severity in the pilot study. Within the larger dataset, clinical score trended toward significance (p=0.13). Stratification based on HLA DRB1*1501 status showed that MS smokers with the HLA DRB1*1501 allele had 2.86 greater odds of having more severe clinical disease than nonsmokers with the genotype (1.41, 5.80; p=0.003). To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine smoking and MS disease severity while controlling for genotype.
Recommended Citation
Gianfrancesco, Milena Anne, "A Pilot Project To Assess The Effect Of Tobacco Smoking On Multiple Sclerosis Susceptibility And Severity" (2012). Public Health Theses. 1104.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysphtdl/1104
Comments
This is an Open Access Thesis.