Summary: The authors evaluated the incidence and prevalence of MS in Northern Ostrobothnia by means of a retrospective cohort study covering the period 1992-2007 and found, using the older Poser criteria and McDonald 2001 criteria to define disease, that the incidence showed a tendency to increase over the 16-year period due, primarily, to rising female incidence.
The authors propose environmental factors such as vitamin D deficiency as possible mechanisms. However the results seem to agree with other reports over the past decade that also suggest a rise in MS incidence, which is observed mainly amongst women, and which may point towards a sex-linked environmental factor playing a role....Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/2325