Environmental factors and social determinants of health in multiple sclerosis

<h3>Biography</h3> Professor Ruth Dobson is based at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, QMUL, and is Centre Lead for the Centre of Preventive Neurology. Her research has a focus on the roles of ethnicity, deprivation, gender and wider social determinants of health in MS, and she is particularly interested in ensuring that all people with MS are represented in research. She led the publication of UK guidelines on pregnancy in MS, and leads the UK MS pregnancy register. She was identified by the Royal College of Physicians as an Emerging Women Leader, and recently won the individual MS Brain Health award for her work in pregnancy and MS. Current research projects are supported by the NMSS, MS Society, Horne Family Foundation, Barts Charity, BMA Foundation, MRC and NIHR. She has over 120 peer reviewed publications. She is currently Deputy EDI lead within QMUL Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and Strategic Lead for Dementia at UCL Partners. She sits on both the NHS England Neurology clinical reference group and the Association of British Neurologists neuroinflammation advisory group. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. The clinical onset occurs most commonly in early adulthood, and it affects approximately three times as many females as males. MS is an archetypal complex disease in both aetiology and severity, with both genetic and environmental influences of susceptibility and severity, alongside a variety of clinical manifestations. This presentation will explore environmental factors associated with disease susceptibility and severity, including infection with Epstein Barr virus, smoking and obesity. Alongside this, social determinants of health that have been associated with MS and MS outcomes will be highlighted, and the complex interplay between these factors and the wider environment discussed. This discussion will be underpinned by primary research data, and will highlight potential avenues for future exploration and intervention alongside areas where further research is required.