Black, L.J.Bowe, G.S.Pereira, G.Lucas, R.M.Dear, K.Van Der Mei, I.Sherriff, J.L.Chapman, C.Coulthard, A.Dear, K.Dwyer, T.Kilpatrick, T.McMichael, T.Pender, M.P.Ponsonby, A.L.Taylor, B.Valery, P.Williams, D.2022-08-212022-08-212019Frontiers in Neurology, 2019; 10(FEB):125-1-125-101664-22951664-2295https://hdl.handle.net/2440/136071The evidence associating red meat consumption and risk of multiple sclerosis is inconclusive. We tested associations between red meat consumption and risk of a first clinical diagnosis of central nervous system demyelination (FCD), often presaging a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. We used food frequency questionnaire data from the 2003–2006 Ausimmune Study, an incident, matched, case-control study examining environmental risk factors for FCD. We calculated non-processed and processed red meat density (g/1,000 kcal/day). Conditional logistic regression models (with participants matched on age, sex, and study region) were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs), 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) and p-values for associations between non-processed (n = 689, 250 cases, 439 controls) and processed (n = 683, 248 cases, 435 controls) red meat density and risk of FCD. Models were adjusted for history of infectious mononucleosis, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, smoking, race, education, body mass index and dietary misreporting. A one standard deviation increase in non-processed red meat density (22 g/1,000 kcal/day) was associated with a 19% reduced risk of FCD (AOR = 0.81; 95%CI 0.68, 0.97; p = 0.02). When stratified by sex, higher non-processed red meat density (per 22 g/1,000 kcal/day) was associated with a 26%reduced risk of FCD in females (n = 519; AOR = 0.74; 95%CI 0.60, 0.92; p = 0.01). There was no statistically significant association between non-processed red meat density and risk of FCD inmales (n=170).We found no statistically significant association between processed red meat density and risk of FCD. Further investigation is warranted to understand the important components of a diet that includes non-processed red meat for lower FCD risk.en© 2019 Black, Bowe, Pereira, Lucas, Dear, van der Mei, Sherriff and the Ausimmune Investigator Group. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.red meat; processed meat; Ausimmune Study; multiple sclerosis; dietJournal article10.3389/fneur.2019.001252022-08-10475584Dear, K. [0000-0002-0788-7404]