An Outbreak of Hepatic Veno-Occlusive Disease in Western Afghanistan Associated with Exposure to Wheat Flour Contaminated with Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids

Table 2

Univariate and multivariate analysis of potential exposure factors for hepatic veno-occlusive disease in Gulran District, Afghanistan, 2008. Odds ratios presented with 95% confidence intervals in parentheses.

Variable	Univariate  Odd Ratio	Multivariate  Odd Ratio
Socioeconomic quartile
(Poorest)	1	1
2	0.3 (0.1–0.7)	0.4 (0.1–1.1)
3	0.2 (0.06–0.4)	0.3 (0.1–1.0)
Least poor	0.3 (0.2–0.7)	0.8 (0.3–2.1)
Wheat source (not home grown)	2.3 (1.4–3.9)	1.8 (0.9–3.9)
Remove charmac seeds	0.5 (0.3–0.9)	Removed due to missing data
Charmac Grows on land	5.0 (1.7–14.5)	8.5 (2.1–33.1)
Bread consumed (alone)
Infrequent	1	1
1	2.0 (0.7–5.6)	6.3 (1.6–24.8)
2	1.6 (0.6–4.2)	3.6 (1.0–13.3)
Frequent—3	10.3 (3.3–32.1)	35.8 (7.6–168.2)
Protein Level
Low	1	1
1	0.4 (0.2–0.8)	0.6 (0.2–2.0)
High-2	0.2 (0.1–0.5)	0.1 (0.02–0.9)
High Dairy Level	0.5 (0.3–0.9)	1.2 (0.4–3.7)
High Pulse Level	0.5 (0.3–0.9)	0.7 (0.3–1.9)
High Fruit Level	0.3 (0.2–0.7)	0.2 (0.06–0.6)
High Rice Level	0.9 (0.5–1.7)	2.6 (1.1–5.9)
High Food Level	0.4 (0.2–0.7)	2.1 (0.6–6.8)