Motor Neurone Disease is not linked to social deprivation, research by Scots medics has found.
From Scotland’s population of 5.5million, there are, on average, 200 patients diagnosed with MND every year and about 430 people living with it.
A study at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital found the number of people with MND in Scotland has increased in the last 20 years – and is higher than in any other European country.
It has been suggested that high levels of poverty in Scotland could be the cause of the high rate of the disease. But researchers looked into the backgrounds of Scots diagnosed with MND between 2015 and 2017 and found there was no link with social deprivation.
Dr Danielle Leighton, who led the research, said: “We compared data to people in our population to see if there was an association between their social deprivation status to see if it is associated with where they live. It wasn’t. MND affects people of all social class and tends to be more common for people in their 60s as well as being more common in males.
“It can be any age but it is more common for people to have onset in their 60s and the average age of onset is 65.”
Dr Leighton added that specialists cannot say definitively why there are more people in Scotland with MND than any other European country.
She said work is ongoing to explore other reasons why the numbers may have increased.
