Smoking, obesity, and disability worsening in PPMS: an analysis of the INFORMS original trial dataset

Smoking and obesity are recognized modifiable risk factors associated with a higher MS incidence, but their impact on physical and cognitive disability worsening is less clear.

To investigate the impact of smoking and obesity on disability worsening in primary progressive MS (PPMS).

We used data from INFORMS (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00731692), a large randomized-controlled trial in PPMS to compare significant worsening on the EDSS, T25FW, NHPT, and PASAT between smokers and non-smokers, and between BMI groups, at 12, 24, and 33 months of follow-up. We investigated the association of smoking and BMI at screening and the risk of disability worsening with logistic regression models.

Smokers had significantly higher EDSS scores throughout the trial. EDSS was not significantly different between BMI categories. No other outcome measure was significantly different between smokers and non-smokers and between BMI categories throughout the trial. Neither smoking status nor BMI were associated with significant worsening on any outcome measure at any time point during follow-up.

Despite the known effects on MS incidence, smoking and BMI were not associated with the risk of physical and cognitive disability worsening over 3 years in this well-characterized PPMS trial cohort.