title: Association between alcohol consumption and multiple sclerosis: a meta-analysis of observational studies.
abstract: To investigate the association between alcohol consumption and multiple sclerosis risk, we performed a systematic literature search of PubMed, EmBase and Web of Science databases for all relevant articles regarding alcohol and multiple sclerosis. Our meta-analysis consisted of 10 studies, including nine case-controls and one cohort study. The odds ratios (OR) of the association between alcohol consumption and multiple sclerosis were 0.92 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.73-1.17] overall, 0.91 (95 % CI 0.39-2.41) for prospective study, and 0.92 (95 % CI 0.72-1.19) for retrospective studies. In addition, neither subgroup analyses nor sensitivity analyses showed a substantially change in the pooled OR and 95 % CI. Meta-analysis showed that there is no evidence that alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of multiple sclerosis. There may be a potential protective effect of alcohol consumption on MS incidence, however, this trend may not be obvious and should be validated by further research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Statistics, Second Military Medical University, No. 800 Xiangyin Road, Shanghai, 200433, China.
authors.forename: Tiantian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Xiaofei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Tianyi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Wentao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Yuzhou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D064887:Observational Studies as Topic; D012306:Risk