Table 2. Demographic, sociocultural and anthropometric characteristics of MS patients and controls.
| Controls | All MS patients | p * | Established MS Patients | p † | Newly diagnosed patients (drugs naïve) | p ‡ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of subjects (N) | 146 | 195 | 134 | 61 | |||
| Variables | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | |||
| Anthropometric Parameters | |||||||
| BMI (kg/m2) | 0.359 a | 0.241 a | 0.933 a | ||||
| Normal (<25) | 37 (27.2) | 64 (34.6) | 47 (36.7) | 17 (29.8) | |||
| Overweight (25–29.99) | 50 (36.8) | 59 (31.9) | 39 (30.5) | 20 (35.1) | |||
| Obese (≥30) | 49 (36.0) | 62 (33.5) | 42 (32.8) | 20 (35.1) | |||
| Demographic Characteristics | |||||||
| Age in years | 0.237 a | 0.593 a | 0.060 a | ||||
| <30 | 58 (40.6) | 75 (38.5) | 50 (37.3) | 25 (41.0) | |||
| 30–40 | 44 (30.8) | 76 (39.0) | 49 (36.6) | 27 (44.3) | |||
| >40 | 41 (28.7) | 44 (22.6) | 35 (26.1) | 9 (14.8) | |||
| Mean±SD | 33.8±9.5 | 33.2±10.4 | 0.589 b | 34.4±11.0 | 0.665 b | 30.8±8.3 | 0.029 b |
| Gender | 0.526 a | 0.672 a | 0.466 a | ||||
| Male | 52 (35.6) | 76 (39.0) | 51 (38.1) | 25 (41.0) | |||
| Female | 94 (64.4) | 119 (61.0) | 83 (61.9) | 36 (59.0) | |||
| Ethnicity | 0.016 a | 0.001 a | 0.428 a | ||||
| Bedouins | 63 (43.2) | 55 (28.2) | 31 (23.1) | 24 (39.3) | |||
| Non-Bedouins | 64 (43.8) | 106 (54.4) | 74 (55.2) | 32 (52.5) | |||
| Persians | 19 (13.0) | 34 (17.4) | 29 (21.6) | 5 (8.2) | |||
| Migration history during Gulf War (1990/91) | 0.017 a | 0.008 a | 0.364 a | ||||
| Full domicile in Kuwait | 71 (53.0) | 127 (66.1) | 91 (68.9) | 36 (60.0) | |||
| Migrated outside Kuwait | 63 (47.0) | 65 (33.9) | 41 (31.1) | 24 (33.8) | |||
| Sociocultural Characteristics | |||||||
| Smoking history | 0.026 a | 0.113 a | 0.012 a | ||||
| Negative | 118 (83.1) | 142 (72.8) | 101 (75.4) | 41 (67.2) | |||
| Positive | 24 (16.9) | 53 (27.2) | 33 (24.6) | 20 (33.8) | |||
| Family history of MS | <0.001 a | <0.001 a | <0.001 a | ||||
| Negative | 133 (95.7) | 144 (73.8) | 95 (70.9) | 49 (80.3) | |||
| Positive | 6 (4.3) | 51 (26.2) | 39 (29.1) | 12 (19.7) | |||
| History of chronic comorbidity | 0.005 a | 0.001 a | 0.645 a | ||||
| No | 101 (73.2) | 110 (58.2) | 68 (52.7) | 42 (70.0) | |||
| Yes | 37 (26.8) | 79 (41.8) | 61 (47.3) | 18 (30.0) | |||
| Daily sunlight exposure (min/day) | <0.001 a | <0.001 a | 0.001 a | ||||
| <15 | 68 (49.3) | 155 (79.5) | 109 (81.3) | 46 (75.4) | |||
| ≥15 | 70 (50.7) | 40 (20.5) | 25 (18.7) | 15 (24.6) | |||
| Mode of routine outdoor dressing | 0.654 a | 0.980 a | 0.026 a | ||||
| Partially shrouded dressing | 112 (83.0) | 158 (81.0) | 116 (86.6) | 42 (68.9) | |||
| Fully shrouded dressing | 23 (17.0) | 37 (19.0) | 18 (13.4) | 19 (31.1) | |||
Numbers may not add up to the total due to missing values.
Significant p values are presented in bold font.
*Controls vs All MS patients;
†Controls vs Established MS Patients;
‡Controls vs Newly diagnosed patients.
p values are generated by
achi-square test,
bStudent t-test,
cFishers exact test and
dMann-Whitney U-test.