Abstract
Objective
To analyze time-trends in age at disability milestones among MS patients who were
enrolled into the MSBase International Registry during 1996–2010 period.
Methods
We used linear regression to describe the relationship between mean age at major EDSS
benchmarks and calendar time. We then assessed time-trend in age at initial EDSS rating
with a three level linear growth model specifying that patients were nested within
each of 20 participating countries. The model estimated the average of time-trends
in mean age at initial clinical assessment within each country while controlling for
patients' EDSS and sex in each country. Analyses were repeated in subsamples of patients
diagnosed according to Poser or McDonald criteria.
Results
The MSBase Registry contained data on 11,108 MS patients enrolled between 1996 and
2010 who fulfilled our inclusion criteria. During the 1996–2010 period, enrollment
age for patients with EDSS 4/4.5 increased by 7.9 years, from 43 to 51 years (p<0.001), and for EDSS 6/6.5 — by 4.9 years, from 48 to 53 year (p<0.001). These trends were consistent across 20 investigator countries and were observed
in Poser-diagnosed as well as McDonald-diagnosed patient subsets.
Conclusions
The more recent MSBase enrollees in each of the mild-to-moderate disability strata
were significantly older than earlier enrollees. Possible explanations for this phenomenon
are discussed.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 16, 2012
Accepted:
March 22,
2012
Received in revised form:
March 21,
2012
Received:
November 27,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
