Journal article
Latitudinal variation in incidence and type of first central nervous system demyelinating events
BV Taylor, RM Lucas, K Dear, TJ Kilpatrick, MP Pender, IAF Van Der Mei, C Chapman, A Coulthard, T Dwyer, AJ McMichael, PC Valery, D Williams, AL Ponsonby
Multiple Sclerosis | Published : 2010
Abstract
Increasing prevalence and variable geographic patterns of occurrence of multiple sclerosis suggest an environmental role in causation. There are few descriptive, population-level, data on whether such variability applies to first demyelinating events (FDEs). We recruited 216 adults (18-59 years), with a FDE between 1 November 2003 and 31 December 2006 in a multi-center incident case-control study in four locations on the south-eastern and eastern seaboard of Australia, spanning latitudes 27° south to 43° south. Population denominators were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics censuses of 2001 and 2006. Age and sex adjusted FDE incidence rates increased by 9.55% (95% confidence i..
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Awarded by National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the United States of America
Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the efforts of our study nurses over the course of the Ausimmune Study: Ms Susan Agland, Ms Barbara Alexander, Dr Marcia Davis, Ms Zoe Dunlop, Ms Helen Rodgers, Ms Rosalie Scott, Ms Jannie Selvidge, Ms Marie Steele, Ms Catherine Turner, Ms Brenda Wood and Ms Annie Wright, and the assistance of the Multiple Sclerosis Societies of Australia. The Ausimmune Study was funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the United States of America (RG 3364A1/2), the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Project Grant #316901 and Capacity Building Grant #224215) and Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia.