COVID-19 vaccination uptake in people with multiple sclerosis compared to the general population

Abstract

Objective To determine the COVID-19 vaccine uptake among people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) compared to the general population in Croatia. Methods Data from all pwMS entered in the MS Base register until March 24th, 2022 were extracted including age, sex, MS phenotype, disease-modifying therapy (DMT), and date of COVID-19 vaccination. Data on the general population of Croatia were obtained from the vaccination register of the Croatian Institute of Public Health. Results 64.4% pwMS were fully COVID-19 vaccinated which was comparable to 66.3% of the general population. More pwMS were fully vaccinated in the age group 20–24 (74.1% vs 51.7%), and fewer pwMS were fully vaccinated in the age group 65–69 (33.3% vs 80.4%) compared to the general population of the same age group, respectively. PwMS who received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine were older (40.5 vs 37.6 years, p = 0.01), had higher EDSS (2.0 vs 1.0, p = 0.025), and had longer disease duration (6.39 vs 5.35 years, p = 0.02), were more likely to have progressive disease course (p = 0.049) and were on high efficacy DMTs (p = 0.045) compared to unvaccinated pwMS. Longer disease duration positively predicted vaccine uptake. Conclusion Croatia has suboptimal COVID-19 vaccination uptake without a significant difference between the general population and pwMS.

COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage and Associated Factors in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

“…This research is the first in Spain to study COVID-19 vaccination coverage in MS patients. Both the percentage of patients who received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (92.8%) and the full primo-vaccination rate (90.3%) are higher than that obtained by other authors in other countries [23][24][25][26]32,33], such as Croatia, where COVID-19 full primo-vaccination rates of 64.4% have been reported in MS patients [32]. However, it is not possible to make valid comparisons with the coverages obtained in other research carried out in the rest of the countries, such as Austria (87.0%) [23], Iran (88.3%) [26], Australia (82.9%) [25], Switzerland (91.4%) [24], or Canada/United States of America (USA) (84.1%) [33], because these studies only evaluated whether MS patients had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, without specifying that they had received the full primo-vaccination schedule.…”

“…This research is the first in Spain to study COVID-19 vaccination coverage in MS patients. Both the percentage of patients who received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (92.8%) and the full primo-vaccination rate (90.3%) are higher than that obtained by other authors in other countries [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 32 , 33 ], such as Croatia, where COVID-19 full primo-vaccination rates of 64.4% have been reported in MS patients [ 32 ].…”

“…On the other hand, despite evidence that a COVID-19 booster dose restores a degree of protection against infection and hospitalization caused by the SARS-CoV-2 similar to the initial two doses [ 47 ], the vaccination rate with the COVID-19 booster dose administered since September 2022 decreased to 39.3%. Given that studies on COVID-19 vaccination in MS patients were conducted before September 2022 [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 32 , 33 ], our research is the first to report vaccination coverage with such a booster dose among these patients.…”