Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
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.

PubMed Disclaimer

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
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hemmer B, Cepok S, Nessler S, Sommer N. Pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis: an update on immunology. Curr Opin Neurol 2002;15: 227-31. - PubMed
    1. Ebers GC, Sadovnick AD. The geographic distribution of multiple sclerosis: a review. Neuroepidemiology 1993;12: 1-5. - PubMed
    1. Acheson ED. Some comments on the relationship of the distribution of multiple sclerosis to latitude, solar radiation, and other variables. Acta Neurol Scand 1960;35: 132-47. - PubMed
    1. McMichael AJ, Hall AJ. Does immunosuppressive ultraviolet radiation explain the latitude gradient for multiple sclerosis? Epidemiology 1997;8: 642-5. - PubMed
    1. Vieth R, Chan PC, MacFarlane GD. Efficacy and safety of vitamin D3 intake exceeding the lowest observed adverse effect level. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;73: 288-94. - PubMed

Publication types