Association between smoking, waterpipe, drug and alcohol abuse with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the possible relationship between smoking, hookah use, drugs and alcohol with the development of MS. Materials and Methods: This population-based case-control study was conducted in Tabriz, Iran. MS cases were confirmed by neurologists based on McDonald's 2017 criteria, and standard random dialing (RDD) was used to select healthy control group participants from the patients' residence, which is Tabriz city, with gender matching. Data analysis was done with the help of logistic regression to estimate the ratio of unadjusted and adjusted odds in the confidence interval (CI) of 95% and with the help of SPSS software (25th edition). Findings: In this study, 141 MS cases and 564 control group people were included in the study. The mean age (SD) for cases and controls was (9.4%) 47.0 and (6.1%) 37.7 (P=0.001). Smoking and history of exposure to cigarette smoke (passive smoking) were considered as risk factors associated with MS (OR = 2.48; 95%CI = 1.44-4.27 and OR = 2.20; 95%CI = 1.34-3.62, respectively). However, hookah smoking history was not significantly related to MS (OR = 1.19; 95%CI = 0.62-2.26). Those who used all three methods of tobacco consumption (cigarettes, passive smoking, and hookah) were 2.76 times more likely to develop MS than those who had no contact with tobacco. Data analysis shows that there is no significant relationship between different types of drugs and alcohol and MS (opioids: OR = 0.90; 95%CI = 2.29-0.35, cannabis: OR = 1.58; 95%CI = 0.47-5.24, stimulants: OR = 0.14-4.87, consumption of beer: OR = 0.29-1.26, consumption of whiskey/vodka: OR = 0.34-1.49, wine consumption: OR = 0.73; 95%CI = 0.35-1.53).