C-section is not a risk factor for MS

Epub: Nielsen et al. Caesarian Cesarean section and offspring's risk of multiple sclerosis: a Danish nationwide cohort study. Mult Scler. 2013 Mar.

BACKGROUND: Apart from a recent study reporting a 2- to 3-fold increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) among women and men who were delivered by Cesarean section (C-section), little attention has been given to the possible association between mode of delivery and the risk of MS.


OBJECTIVES: We studied the association between C-section and risk of MS, in a cohort of 1.7 million Danes born from 1973 to 2005.

METHODS: Information on C-section and MS was obtained from the Danish Medical Birth Register and the Danish MS Register, respectively. The association between C-section and MS was evaluated by means of MS incidence rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) obtained in log-linear Poisson regression analyses.

RESULTS: There were 930 cases of MS in the study cohort, of whom 80 (9%) were delivered by C-section. Overall, we found there was no significant association between C-section and risk of MS (RR = 1.17; 0.92-1.46). Analyses stratified by sex revealed no unusual risk of MS for women (RR = 1.08: 0.80-1.42) nor men (RR = 1.37: 0.91-1.98). A supplementary sibling-matched Cox regression analysis likewise suggested there was no excess risk of MS in persons delivered by C-section (HR = 1.03; 0.63-1.69).

CONCLUSIONS: Mode of delivery appears to be unimportant in relation to MS development in the offspring.




There was a previous study suggesting that if you were born by c-section, you were twice at risk of developing MS.  Prof G said ""An interesting observation that will need to confirmed. The best place to do this would be in Denmark or Sweden using their national databases." This has been now been done in Denmark and the conclusions say it all....No increased risk. This supports another study recently reported that found no increased risk of MS following c-sections. I think this is the real answer and suspect we will see another study to confirm this. What next?....the risk of MS if you eat baked beans as a child? 

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