Risk of multiple sclerosis after head injury: record linkage study

Background: The possibility that head injury may influence the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been studied inconclusively in the past. Objective: To determine whether head injury is associated with an increased risk of MS. Method: Analysis of database of linked hospital and death records...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry neurosurgery and psychiatry, 2006-03, Vol.77 (3), p.351-353
Main Authors: Goldacre, M J, Abisgold, J D, Yeates, D G R, Seagroatt, V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Causality
Child
Child, Preschool
Codes
Cohort Studies
Confidence intervals
Craniocerebral Trauma - complications
Craniocerebral Trauma - epidemiology
Ear diseases
Female
Head injuries
head injury
Hospitals
Humans
Infant
Injuries of the nervous system and the skull. Diseases due to physical agents
Male
Medical Record Linkage
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis - epidemiology
Multiple Sclerosis - etiology
Multiple sclerosis and variants. Guillain barré syndrome and other inflammatory polyneuropathies. Leukoencephalitis
Neurology
ORLS
Oxford record linkage study
Population
Recall
record linkage
Risk
Studies
Traumas. Diseases due to physical agents
United Kingdom
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Summary:Background: The possibility that head injury may influence the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been studied inconclusively in the past. Objective: To determine whether head injury is associated with an increased risk of MS. Method: Analysis of database of linked hospital and death records, comparing the occurrence of MS in a cohort of people admitted to hospital with head injury and a reference cohort. Results: The rate ratio for MS after head injury, compared with the reference cohort, was 1.1 (95% confidence interval, 0.88 to 1.36). There was no significant increase in the risk of MS at either short or long time periods after head injury. Using length of hospital stay as a proxy for severity of injury, there was no significant increase in the rate ratio for MS after head injuries with hospital stays of less than two days (rate ratio = 1.1 (0.71 to 1.57)), two or more days (rate ratio = 1.0 (0.68 to 1.45)), or seven or more days (rate ratio = 1.3 (0.64 to 2.34)). Conclusions: The method used, record linkage, ensures that patients’ recollection of injury, or any tendency to attribute MS to injury, cannot have influenced the results. Injuries to the head were not associated with either the aetiological initiation or the clinical precipitation of onset of multiple sclerosis.
ISSN:0022-3050
1468-330X
DOI:10.1136/jnnp.2005.077693