A logistic regression analysis of risk factors in ME/CFS pathogenesis

Lacerda, Eliana M.; Geraghty, Keith; Kingdon, Caroline C.; Palla, Luigi; Nacul, Luis

doi:10.1186/s12883-019-1468-2

BMC Neurology

Table 2 Description of participants from the UK ME/CFS Biobank, by category of recruitment and variables under the following domains: demographic, socio-economic, family health history, lifestyle, previous morbidity (prior disease onset for the diseased groups), and recent exposures

From: A logistic regression analysis of risk factors in ME/CFS pathogenesis

Domains	Variables		Category of Recruitment						Total
			Healthy control		MS control		ME/CFSmm		Total
			(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)
Demographic	Sex	Male	51	38.1	16	21.6	63	23.4	130	27.3
	Sex	Female	83	61.9	58	78.4	206	76.6	347	72.7
	Age group	>=18 & <30	22	16.4	1	1.4	43	16.0	66	13.8
		>=30 & <40	33	24.6	12	16.2	60	22.3	105	22.0
		>=40 & <50	35	26.1	18	24.3	75	27.9	128	26.8
		>=50 & <=60	44	32.8	43	58.1	91	33.8	178	37.3
	Incidence age group	<18	n/a	n/a	3	4.2	42	16.7	45	14.0
		>=18 & <30	n/a	n/a	19	26.8	88	35.1	107	33.2
		>=30 & <40	n/a	n/a	22	31.0	61	24.3	83	25.8
		>=40 & <50	n/a	n/a	22	31.0	49	19.5	71	22.0
		>=50 & <=60	n/a	n/a	5	7.0	11	4.4	16	5.0
	Ethnicity	White	119	91.5	70	94.6	247	96.5	436	94.8
	Ethnicity	Other	11	8.5	4	5.4	9	3.5	24	5.2
Socio-economic	Current marital status	Married/with partner	98	76.6	52	72.2	141	54.9	291	63.7
	Current marital status	Single	30	23.4	20	27.8	116	45.1	166	36.3
	Marital status (prior disease onset)	Married/with partner	n/a	n/a	56	76.0	115	44.8	171	51.8
		Divorced/separated	n/a	n/a	5	6.7	26	10.1	31	9.4
		Single	n/a	n/a	12	17.3	116	45.1	128	38.8
	Education	Up to high school	37	28.9	28	38.9	93	36.5	158	34.7
		Started HE	13	10.2	11	15.3	40	15.7	64	14.1
		Completed HE/PG	78	60.9	33	45.8	122	47.8	233	51.2
	Individual income (current)	Higher than £19,999	63	51.6	28	43.8	40	16.7	131	30.8
	Individual income (current)	Up to £19,999	59	48.4	36	56.2	199	83.3	294	69.2
	Individual income (prior disease onset)	Higher than £19,999	n/a	n/a	36	56.2	67	28.8	103	34.7
	Individual income (prior disease onset)	Up to £19,999	n/a	n/a	28	43.8	166	71.2	194	65.3
			mean	SD	mean	SD	mean	SD
	Index of multiple deprivation^a	Deciles	5.9	2.6	5.8	2.6	5.8	2.6
			(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)
Family health history	High blood pressure	No	69	54.3	39	56.5	116	47.4	224	50.8
	High blood pressure	Yes	58	45.7	30	43.5	129	52.7	217	49.2
	Diabetes	No	102	81.0	49	70.0	178	73.6	329	75.1
	Diabetes	Yes	24	19.1	21	30.0	64	26.5	109	24.9
	Heart problems	No	85	68.0	44	62.0	147	59.8	276	62.4
	Heart problems	Yes	40	32.0	27	38.0	99	40.2	166	37.6
	Asthma	No	93	74.4	48	68.6	140	58.3	281	64.6
	Asthma	Yes	32	25.6	22	31.4	100	41.7	154	35.4
	Allergies	No	72	57.6	49	72.1	98	40.8	219	50.6
	Allergies	Yes	53	42.4	19	27.9	142	59.2	214	49.4
	Depression	No	80	64.0	48	66.7	132	54.3	260	59.1
	Depression	Yes	45	36.0	24	33.3	111	45.7	180	40.9
	Anxiety	No	101	80.8	49	70.0	131	54.4	281	64.5
	Anxiety	Yes	24	19.2	21	30.0	110	45.6	155	35.6
	Mental health problems	No	106	84.8	59	83.1	182	75.8	347	79.6
	Mental health problems	Yes	19	15.2	12	16.9	58	24.2	89	20.4
	Learning disabilities	No	93	97.9	66	93.0	127	88.2	286	92.3
	Learning disabilities	Yes	2	2.1	5	7.0	17	11.8	24	7.7
	Physical disabilities	No	88	92.6	62	87.3	120	83.9	270	87.4
	Physical disabilities	Yes	7	7.4	9	12.7	23	16.1	39	12.6
	Cancer	No	77	61.1	30	41.7	144	60.0	251	57.3
	Cancer	Yes	49	38.9	42	58.3	96	40.0	187	42.7
	ME/CFS	No	117	94.4	67	97.1	214	89.9	398	92.3
	ME/CFS	Yes	7	5.7	2	2.9	24	10.1	33	7.7
	MS	No	94	99.0	60	85.7	137	97.9	291	95.4
	MS	Yes	1	1.1	10	14.3	3	2.1	14	4.6
	Other neurological problems	No	87	91.6	64	90.1	117	83.0	268	87.3
	Other neurological problems	Yes	8	8.4	7	9.9	24	17.0	39	12.7
	Tuberculosis	No	93	97.9	61	88.4	136	95.8	290	94.8
	Tuberculosis	Yes	2	2.1	8	11.6	6	4.2	16	5.2
	Any other health problems	No	91	73.4	48	68.6	107	45.7	246	57.5
	Any other health problems	Yes	33	26.6	22	31.4	127	54.3	182	42.5
Lifestyle			median	IQR	median	IQR	median	IQR
	Alcohol consumption	Currently (units/week)	4	1 - 10	2	0 - 9	0	0 - 2	n/a	n/a
	Alcohol consumption	Prior disease onset (units/week)	n/a	n/a	3	0 - 10	2	0 - 7	n/a	n/a
			(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)	(n)	(%)
	Smoking status	Never smoke	85	65.4	30	40.5	159	62.1	274	59.6
		Ex-smoker	39	30.0	26	35.1	66	25.8	131	28.5
		Current smoker	6	4.6	18	24.3	31	12.1	55	12.0
	Physical activity level	Rather inactive/not active	19	14.6	7	9.5	13	5.1	39	8.5
		Neither active nor inactive	23	17.7	11	14.9	23	9.0	57	12.4
		Very active/rather active	88	67.7	56	75.7	219	85.9	363	79.1
Previous morbidity	High blood pressure	No	118	90.8	68	95.8	240	95.2	426	94.0
	High blood pressure	Yes	12	9.2	3	4.2	12	4.8	27	6.0
	Heart problems	No	125	96.9	70	98.6	242	96.0	437	96.7
	Heart problems	Yes	4	3.1	1	1.4	10	4.0	15	3.3
	Asthma	No	115	90.6	66	91.7	187	74.2	368	81.6
	Asthma	Yes	12	9.5	6	8.3	65	25.8	83	18.4
	Allergies	No	67	51.9	49	67.1	143	57.7	259	57.6
	Allergies	Yes	62	48.1	24	32.9	105	42.3	191	42.4
	Depression	No	113	86.9	57	78.1	157	62.1	327	71.7
	Depression	Yes	17	13.1	16	21.9	96	37.9	129	28.3
	Anxiety	No	100	76.9	57	78.1	153	60.2	310	67.8
	Anxiety	Yes	30	23.1	16	21.9	101	39.8	147	32.2
	High levels of stress	No	75	57.7	36	50.7	106	42.4	217	48.1
	High levels of stress	Yes	55	42.3	35	49.3	144	57.6	234	51.9
	Frequent coughs/colds	No	122	93.9	62	88.6	155	61.8	339	75.2
	Frequent coughs/colds	Yes	8	6.2	8	11.4	96	38.3	112	24.8
	Intolerance to alcoholic drinks	No	121	94.5	71	100.0	213	88.4	405	92.1
	Intolerance to alcoholic drinks	Yes	7	5.5	0	0.0	28	11.6	35	8.0
	Intolerance to sugar	No	129	99.2	72	100.0	235	94.8	436	96.9
	Intolerance to sugar	Yes	1	0.8	0	0.0	13	5.2	14	3.1
	Other health problems	No	111	89.5	60	89.6	166	81.8	337	85.5
	Other health problems	Yes	13	10.5	7	10.5	37	18.2	57	14.5
Recent exposures	Lived on a farm	No	126	96.9	68	95.8	238	94.1	432	95.2
		Yes	4	3.1	3	4.2	11	4.4	18	4.0
		Don't know	0	0.0	0	0.0	4	1.6	4	0.9
	Tick bites	No	71	98.6	25	96.2	78	86.7	174	92.6
		Yes	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	1.1	1	0.5
		Don't know	1	1.4	1	3.9	11	12.2	13	6.9
	Vaccines/immunisations	No	67	93.1	19	73.1	80	88.9	166	88.3
		Yes	5	6.9	7	26.9	8	8.9	20	10.6
		Don't know	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	2.2	2	1.1
	Travelled overseas	No	69	53.1	39	53.4	150	59.3	258	56.6
		Yes	61	46.9	31	42.5	87	34.4	179	39.3
		Don't know	0	0.0	3	4.1	16	6.3	19	4.2
	Flooding	No	128	98.5	73	98.7	250	97.7	451	98.0
		Yes	2	1.5	1	1.4	3	1.2	6	1.3
		Don't know	0	0.0	0	0.0	3	1.2	3	0.7
	Radiation	No	71	98.6	25	96.2	82	91.1	178	94.7
		Yes	1	1.4	1	3.9	4	4.4	6	3.2
			0	0.0	0	0.0	4	4.4	4	2.1
	Carbon monoxide (CO)	No	128	97.7	68	89.5	210	81.4	406	87.3
		Yes	1	0.8	0	0.0	3	1.2	4	0.9
		Don't know	2	1.5	8	10.5	45	17.4	55	11.8
	Pesticides	No	119	92.3	57	77.0	174	68.2	350	76.4
		Yes	2	1.6	2	2.7	18	7.1	22	4.8
		Don't know	8	6.2	15	20.3	63	24.7	86	18.8
	Any other chemicals	No	118	91.5	54	73.0	158	62.2	330	72.2
		Yes	6	4.7	3	4.1	25	9.8	34	7.4
		Don't know	5	3.9	17	23.0	71	28.0	93	20.4
	Had meningitis	No	130	100.0	73	98.7	247	96.5	450	97.8
		Yes	0	0.0	1	1.4	2	0.8	3	0.7
		Don't know	0	0.0	0	0.0	7	2.7	7	1.5
	Had any other serious infection	No	128	98.5	65	89.0	167	67.9	360	80.2
		Yes	2	1.5	6	8.2	62	25.2	70	15.6
		Don't know	0	0.0	2	2.7	17	6.9	19	4.2
	Had any head injury	No	129	100.0	65	89.0	229	89.8	423	92.6
		Yes	0	0.0	6	8.2	16	6.3	22	4.8
		Don't know	0	0.0	2	2.7	10	3.9	12	2.6
	Had a major operation	No	128	99.2	68	91.9	235	92.2	431	94.1
		Yes	1	0.8	6	8.1	15	5.9	22	4.8
		Don't know	0	0.0	0	0.0	5	2.0	5	1.1
	Contraceptive pill (women only)	No	67	52.8	33	45.8	139	55.4	239	53.1
		Yes	16	12.6	23	31.9	63	25.1	102	22.7
		Don't know	3	2.4	0	0.0	4	1.6	7	1.6
	Lived in a house with gas or oil appliances	No	28	21.5	24	32.9	50	19.8	102	22.4
		Yes	102	78.5	49	67.1	201	79.8	352	77.4
		Don't know	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	0.4	1	0.2
	Lived in a house with a gas fire	No	100	77.5	46	63.9	153	61.0	299	66.2
		Yes	29	22.5	26	36.1	97	38.7	152	33.6
		Don't know	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	0.4	1	0.2
	BCG vaccination	No	17	17.4	24	32.9	26	17.1	67	20.7
		Yes	63	64.3	41	56.2	97	63.8	201	62.2
		Don't know	18	18.4	8	11.0	29	19.1	55	17.0

MS – multiple sclerosis; ME/CFS - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; HE – Higher education; HE/ PG - Higher education/post-graduation;
^aIndex of multiple deprivation (IDM) is the measure of relative deprivation for small areas in England (official measure). It is composed by the following indices: Income Deprivation (22.5%), Employment Deprivation (22.5%), Education, Skills and Training Deprivation (13.5%), Health Deprivation and Disability (13.5%), Crime (9.3%), Barriers to Housing and Services (9.3%), and Living Environment Deprivation (9.3%). IDM decile 1 refers to the most deprived area and decile 10 to the least deprived area (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/464430/English_Index_of_Multiple_Deprivation_2015_-_Guidance.pdf)

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