ArticlePLoS biology2020
Little evidence for an effect of smoking on multiple sclerosis risk: A Mendelian Randomization study.
Article in PLoS biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Assessment of the genetic and clinical determinants of hip fracture risk: Genome-wide association and Mendelian randomization study.Cell reports. Medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Genetic Risk in Multiple Sclerosis: Susceptibility, Modifiers and Unresolved Questions.Neurology and therapy · 2026Review
- Global, regional and national burden of neurodegenerative diseases attributable to smoking: A descriptive study based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Tobacco induced diseases · 2026Article
- Associations Between Dietary Factors, Metabolic Factors, Sleep Disorders, Physical Activity, and the Risk of Multiple Sclerosis: A Univariable and Multivariable Mendelian Randomization Study.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
- Lifetime exposure to smoking and substance abuse may be associated with late-onset multiple sclerosis: a population-based case-control study.BMC neurology · 2024Article
- An atlas of genetic determinants of forearm fracture.Nature genetics · 2023Article
- Towards a global view of multiple sclerosis genetics.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2022Review
- Environmental risk factors in multiple sclerosis: bridging Mendelian randomization and observational studies.Journal of neurology · 2022Review
- Neuroinflammation in neurodegenerationFrontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Genetics and functional genomics of multiple sclerosis.Seminars in immunopathology · 2022Review
- Predicting Multiple Sclerosis: Challenges and Opportunities.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The causes of multiple sclerosis (MS) remain unknown. Smoking has been associated with MS in observational studies and is often thought of as an environmental risk factor. We used two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to examine whether this association is causal using genetic variants identified in genome-wide association studies (GWASs) as associated with smoking. We assessed both smoking initiation and lifetime smoking behaviour (which captures smoking duration, heaviness, and cessation). There was very limited evidence for a meaningful effect of smoking on MS susceptibility as measured using summary statistics from the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC) meta-analysis, including 14,802 cases and 26,703 controls. There was no clear evidence for an effect of smoking on the risk of developing MS (smoking initiation: odds ratio [OR] 1.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.92-1.61; lifetime smoking: OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.87-1.40). These findings suggest that smoking does not have a detrimental consequence on MS susceptibility. Further work is needed to determine the causal effect of smoking on MS progression.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.