Healthy Lifestyle May Improve MS Prevalence

The significance of a healthy lifestyle in multiple sclerosis (MS) is not well understood. A study evaluated the impact of a healthy lifestyle on MS prevalence and found that those who adopted certain healthy lifestyle factors had a lower prevalence of MS.

The case-control study took four healthy lifestyle-related factors into account: no current smoking, healthy diet, exercising regularly, and body mass index <30 kg/m². The combined association of MS and prevalence of MS was assessed using a logistic regression analysis that adjusted for confounders.

A total of 728 patients with MS were propensity score-matched to 2,912 healthy controls. A multivariable analysis found that patients who adopted all four healthy lifestyle factors were 71% less likely to have MS compared with those who adopted zero or one of the healthy lifestyle factors (odds ratio, 0.29; 95% confidence interval, 0.15-0.56). A linear trend indicated a possible correlation between the higher number of healthy lifestyle factors and a lower likelihood of having MS.