Environmental Factors And The Risk Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis:A Clinical Study Of 560 Cases

Background:Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS)is a progressive degenerative disease of the nervous system,mainly involving the upper and lower motor neurons.The cause of ALS is not clear.At present,it is acknowledged among scholars that the pathogenesis of ALS is mainly the result of the common effects of genetic and environmental factors.The research conclusions on environmental factors are inconsistent,and most of the research is carried out in western countries including Europe and the United States.The domestic research on environmental factors is relatively inadequate,which strongly requires further studies.Method:the study design is case-control study,which included 560 cases in the case group and 614 cases in the control group.Correspondingly,the case group and control group were matched with the sex,age and residence,and information on general situation,nutritional status,the improved ALS function assessment(ALS-FRSr)and the investigation of the environmental factors were obtained by questionnaires in both case group and control group.Environmental factors being studied include the history of toxicant contact,sports and head injury,comorbid and individual social activity.Single factor Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the effects of different factors on the risk of ALS onset.Multiple factors logistic regression analysis was used to further evaluate the results of the common effects of the risk factors of statistical significance.In terms of the rate of disease progression,single factor analysis of variance was used to assess the impact of different factors on the rate of disease progression,and a single factor Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the effect of different factors determining a rapid progression.Conclusion:Low education,herbicide contact and more than 18 times of hair dye exposure may be the risk factors for the onset of ALS,while reading habit and hyperlipidemia may be the protective factors for the pathogenesis of ALS.The role of all kinds of risk factors still requires further research.