Date Published:

02

Abstract:

There are few if any reports regarding the role of lifetime waterpipe smoking in multiple sclerosis (MS) etiology. The authors investigated the association between waterpipe and MS, adjusted for confounders. This was a population-based incident case-control study conducted in Tehran, Iran. Cases (n=547) were 15–50-year-old patients identified from the Iranian Multiple Sclerosis Society between 2013 and 2015. Population-based controls (n=1057) were 15–50-year old recruited by random digit telephone dialing. A double robust estimator method known as targeted maximum likelihood estimator (TMLE) was used to estimate the marginal risk ratio and odds ratio between waterpipe and MS. The both estimated RR and OR was 1.70 (95% CI: 1.34, 2.17). The population attributable fraction was 21.4% (95% CI: 4.0%, 38.8%). Subject to the limitations of case-control studies in interpreting associations causally, this study suggests that waterpipe use, or its strongly related but undetermined factors, increases the risk of MS. Further epidemiological studies including nested case-control studies are needed to confirm these results.

Notes:

kwab036

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