The social and occupational consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic among patients with multiple sclerosis in three distinct populations: A web-based cross-sectional survey

Zhang, G.-X.; Zhao, Rui; Zhang, W.-T.; Yu, Wanqi; Zhang, X.-J.; Gao, Shuaishuai; Leal, Irma Regla Olivera; Carrilllo-Vico, A.; Toledo, María Cáceres; O'Farrill, Zurina Lestayo; Amoedo, R.P.; Zhu, Jianhan; Zhao, Guolin; Izquierdo, Guillermo

doi:10.1016/j.neurop.2021.10.004

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…All studies were observational studies, being 45 (91.8%) crosssectional studies and 4 (8.2%) longitudinal studies (Table 1). Studies were done in Argentina (26), Australia (27)(28)(29), Chile (30), China (31,32), Cuba (32), Egypt (33), Kuwait (33), France (34), Iran (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), Italy (41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48), Montenegro (49), Poland (50, 51), Portugal (52), Serbia (53,54), Spain (31,32,55), Turkey (56)(57)(58), and the United States of America (47,(59)(60)(61)(62)(63)(64)(65)(66)(67)(68)(69). Most of the articles demonstrated to have reasonable methodological quality.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occupational outcomes of people with multiple sclerosis during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review with meta-analysis

Vitturi,

Rahmani,

Montecucco

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundPeople with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS) are vulnerable to unfavorable occupational outcomes and the COVID-19 pandemic brought major consequences on people’s professional lives. In this view, we decided to investigate the occupational outcomes of PwMS during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe performed a systematic review with meta-analysis searching key terms in four databases. We initially included any peer-reviewed original article that enrolled adult patients with the diagnosis of MS and assessed any occupational variable during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no time limits and no language restrictions. The primary outcomes were the prevalence of unemployment, retirement and employment status change among people with MS during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other outcomes included the modality and characteristics of work: type of work, full-time work, part-time work and remote work. We also searched for data from studies that addressed any change in the work status due to the COVID-19 outbreak.ResultsWe identified 49 eligible articles comprising a total sample size of 17,364 individuals with MS. The pooled prevalence of unemployment and retirement was 0.47 (95% CI = 0.42–0.53). The pooled prevalence of PwMS who were unemployed or retired was positively associated with the progressive phenotype of the disease (p = 0.017) and the use of glatiramer acetate (p = 0.004), but negatively associated with hospitalization due to COVID-19 (p = 0.008) and the use of immunosuppressants (p = 0.032), siponimod (p < 0.001), and cladribine (p = 0.021). The pooled proportion of PwMS that reported any change of the employment status during the COVID-19 pandemic was 0.43 (95% CI = 0.36–0.50) while the pooled prevalence of PwMS who worked remotely during this period was 0.37 (95% CI = 0.15–0.58). The change in employment status was negatively associated with the duration of MS (p = 0.03) but positively associated with the progressive phenotype of the disease (p < 0.001).ConclusionOur seminal review may serve as an example of how patients with neurological diseases or disabilities in general may have their jobs impacted in a pandemic and foster the context of global socio-economic crisis.

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