Research Paper: Association Between Sunlight Exposure and Vitamin D Intake With Multiple Sclerosis Disabilityand Progression

Background: Some studies on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) have suggested that adequatevitamin D intake can modulate the course of MS and decreases its incidence. However,there are limited studies with conflicting findings on the relation between MS severity, itscourse, and vitamin D intake.Objectives: The current study aimed to compare vitamin D intake and sunlight exposure betweenMS phenotypes and evaluate their association with disability and fatigue in each phenotype.Materials & Methods: A total of 197 patients with MS were recruited from patients referringto MS clinic in Kashani Hospital in Isfahan, Iran. Subjects were assessed for sunlight exposure,vitamin D intake, physical activity, and fatigue. SPSS was used for statistical analysis. P<0.05 wereset as significant.Results: According to the obtained results, expanded disability status scale and fatigue scale scores inPrimary-Progressive MS (PPMS) and Secondary-Progressive MS (SPMS) groups were higher thanRelapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS) group. In addition, patients in RRMS group had higher scoresof sun exposure and physical activity, compared to SPMS and PPMS groups. We found a negativecorrelation between the scores of fatigue scale and sunlight exposure scale in RRMS patients.Conclusion: We found higher sunlight exposure in RRMS group and lower sunlight exposure inthe PPMS group, while dietary vitamin D intake was not different between the groups. Furtherstudies with larger sample sizes and stronger methodologies are required to evaluate our findings.

کلیدواژه ها:

Multiple Sclerosis ، Sunlight ، Vitamin D