Journal
AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS AND FRONTOTEMPORAL DEGENERATION
Volume 22, Issue 7-8, Pages 528-534Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/21678421.2021.1905847
Keywords
Physical activity; isolated population; Malta; Maltese; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Categories
Funding
- University of Malta Research Excellence Fund
- Malta Council for Science & Technology Internationalization Partnership Award
- Endeavor Scholarship (Malta) - EU - European Social Fund under Operational Programme II Cohesion Policy
- Bjorn Formosa Scholarship for Advanced Research in to ALS/MND - ALS Malta Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study found that ALS patients were more likely to have blue-collar jobs, with carpentry and construction occupations being positively associated with ALS and bulbar-onset ALS. The findings suggest that manual workers, particularly in the carpentry and construction industries, have an increased ALS risk due to a history of intense or sustained physical activity.
Objective: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a mostly sporadic neurodegenerative disease. The role of environmental factors has been extensively investigated but associations remain controversial. Considering that a substantial proportion of adult life is spent at work, identifying occupations and work-related exposures is considered an effective way to detect factors that increase ALS risk. This process may be further facilitated in population isolates due to environmental and genetic homogeneity. Our study investigated occupations and occupational exposures potentially associated with ALS risk in the isolated island population of Malta, using a case-control study design. Methods: Patients with ALS and randomly identified matched controls (1:1) were recruited throughout a four-year window, from 2017 through 2020. Data on educational level, residence, main occupation, smoking, and alcohol history were collected. Results: We found that compared to controls (44.4%), a higher percentage (73.7%) of ALS patients reported a blue-collar job as their main occupation (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.2-3.72; p = 0.0072). Through regression analysis, craft and related trades occupations such as carpentry and construction (ISCO-08 major group 7), were found to be positively associated with ALS, with patients in this occupational category found to be more prone to develop bulbar-onset ALS (p = 0.0297). Overall, patients with ALS reported a significantly higher exposure to work-related strenuous physical activity (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.53-3.59; p = 0.0002). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that manual workers particularly those working in the carpentry and construction industries have an increased ALS risk, possibly due to a history of intense or sustained physical activity.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available