The association of family history of herpes zoster and the risk of incident herpes zoster: the SHEZ Study

概要

[目的(Purpose)]
A family history of Herpes zoster (HZ) has been reported as a risk factor for HIZ for which the Interleukin (IL)- 10 promotor polymorphism among Koreans and apolipoprotein E-s4 polymorphism among Caucasian women were associated with susceptibility of HZ. However, previous studies came from retrospective case-control studies in the United States, Europe, Iran, and China. No prospective study has investigated the association between a family history of HZ and the risk of incident HZ. Retrospective case-control studies are susceptible to selection, recall, interviewer biases and failure of control for potential confounding variables which could distort the association.

The goal of the present study was to examine whether first-degree family histories of HZ and the number of these family histories were positively associated with the risk of incident HZ in a free-living general population.

[方法ならびに成績(Methods/Results]
A total of 12,522 Japanese residents aged ≥50 years in Shozu County participated in the baseline survey between December 2008 and November 2009 (the participation rate = 72.3%). They were interviewed at baseline by research physicians regarding the registrants 'history of HZ. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the potential confounding factor's. 10,530 participants without a history of HZ were followed up to ascertain the incidence of HZ during 3-years follow-up until the end of November 2012 with Japanese nationals. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) of incident HZ according to first-degree family histories using the Cox proportional hazard regression after adjusting for age, sex, and other potential confounding factors.Differences in baseline characteristics according to the presence or absence of family histories of HZ were examined using the analysis of variance for mean values and chi-square test for frequency. The crude, age- and sex-adjusted, and multivariable HRs and 95% CIs of incident HZ were calculated according to the family histories using a Cox proportional hazard regression model, adjusting for age, sex, and other confounding variables.

Compared to no history of each family member, a history of brother or sister was associated with the risk of incident HZ while histories of father and mother were not. The respective multivariable HRs (95%CIs) of incident HZ were 1.67 (1.04-2.69), 0.88 (0.39-2.00), and 1.17 (0.76-1.79). When comparing to no family histories of first-degree relatives, the multivariable HRs (95%CIs) were 1.34 (0.77-2.34) for a history of brother or sister alone, but 4.81 (1.78-13.00) for a history of mother plus brother or sister. As for the number of family histories, the multivariable HRs (95%CI) was 1.08 (0.76-1.54) for one relative (father, mother, or brother or sister) and 2.75 (1. 13-6.70) for two or more relatives.

[総括/Conclusion]
Family histories of mother plus brother or sister and two or more first-degree relatives were associated with a higher risk of incident HZ.