Table 3. Environmental and sociocultural factors associated with multiple sclerosis in Kuwait selected by multiple logistic regression analysis.

	All patients		Established MS patients		Newly diagnosed patients (drugs naïve)
Variables	AOR* (95% CI)	p	AOR (95% CI)	p	AOR (95% CI)	p
Smoking status
Never	1.0				1.0
Ever	1.9 (0.8–4.5)	0.128	1. 1 (0.4–2.9)	0.880	5. 2 (1.4–18.5)	0.012
Ethnicity
Bedouins	1.0		1.0		1.0
Non-Bedouins	2 (1.0–3.9)	0.049	2.0 (0.9–4.6)	0.088	2 (0.8–4.8)	0.143
Persians	1.47 (0.6–3.6)	0.399	2 (0.7–5.3)	0.178	0.6 (0.2–2.6)	0.514
Family history of MS
Negative	1.0		1.0		1.00
Positive	10.6 (3.0–36.9)	<0.001	16.1 (4.2–61.9)	<0.001	5.3 (1.3–21.8)	0.021
History of chronic comorbidity
No	1.0		1.0		1.0
Yes	2.4 (1.3–4.7)	<0.001	4 (1.8–8.4)	0.001	1. 4 (0.6–3.3)	0.497
Sunlight exposure (min/day)
≥15	1.0		1.0		1.0
<15	5.3 (2.7–10.5)	<0.001	5.6 (2.6–12.2)	<0.001	7.5 (2.6–21.4)	<0.001
Mode of routine outdoor dressing
Partially shrouded dressing	1.0		1.0		1.0
Fully shrouded dressing	2.2 (1–5)	0.065	1.1 (0.4–3.2)	0.824	4.0 (1.5–10.7)	<0.001

*AOR = Adjusted Odds Ratio. Included variables in the model are: age, sex, BMI, Kuwaiti Arabs, smoking status, migration history during Gulf War (1990/91), family history of MS, history of associated diseases, sunlight exposure (min/day); mode of routine outdoor dressing.

Significant p values are presented in bold font.