Higher rate of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) among whites vs non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic other races was not accounted for by multiple measures of socioeconomic status, birthplace, or type of health insurance, according to a recent study. Furthermore, higher rate of ALS among whites likely reflects actual higher risk of ALS rather than ascertainment bias or effects of socioeconomic status on ALS risk. Researchers evaluated data from more than 2 million persons (n=1,145,368 women, n=1,011,172 men), which were included, with 33,024,881 person-years of follow-up (1,299 ALS deaths). Race/ethnicity was by self-report in 4 categories. They found:

• Minority vs white race/ethnicity predicted lower ALS mortality in models adjusted for socioeconomic status, type of health insurance, and birthplace.
• Higher educational attainment compared with <high school was in general associated with higher rate of ALS.
• Income, household poverty, and home ownership were not associated with ALS after adjustment for race/ethnicity.