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Ethnic variation in the incidence of ALS

A systematic review

From the Irish ALS Research Group (S.C., O.H.), Neurology Department, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; and Section on Developmental Genetic Epidemiology (B.J.T.), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Orla Hardiman, The Irish ALS Research Group, Neurology Department, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9, Ireland; e-mail: ohard{at}iol.ie

Background: The findings of recent genetic polymorphism studies in ALS suggest that the influence of genetic risk factors for the disease may vary by ethnicity. It is now widely accepted that the incidence of ALS is uniform across Caucasian populations, but whether racial variation across other ethnicities exists remains unknown.

Method: Systematic review of the known literature on the incidence, prevalence, and mortality of ALS across all ethnicities. To facilitate comparison, studies were grouped according to the type of data presented and examined for sources of case ascertainment and inclusion criteria.

Results: The literature search identified 61 publications. Lower standardized incidence rates were observed in Asian than Caucasian populations. Within the United States, several incidence and mortality studies have identified lower ALS frequency among African American and Hispanic populations than among non-Hispanic Caucasians. These observations are supported by the other data sources.

Conclusions: The incidence of ALS may be lower among African, Asian, and Hispanic ethnicities than among whites. We conclude with proposals for a prospective epidemiologic study concentrating on non-Caucasian populations.

Additional material related to this article can be found on the Neurology Web site. Go to www.neurology.org and scroll down the Table of Contents for the March 27 issue to find the title link for this article.

This research was supported (in part) by the Intramural Program of the National Institute of Mental Health (BJT).

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Received September 18, 2006. Accepted in final form December 13, 2006.

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