What is the impact of socioeconomic status on multiple sclerosis?

Abstract

In "Socioeconomic status and disability progression in multiple sclerosis: a multinational study," Dr. Katharine Harding 1 and her colleagues considered whether people's income, education, and social standing affected how quickly their multiple sclerosis (MS) worsened. The rate at which MS causes worsening of cognitive and physical functioning can vary. The reasons for these differences are not clear but are interesting because they may lead to better treatment for MS. How was the study done? To see if socioeconomic status (SES) affected MS-related disability, the authors reviewed 2 databases containing information on patients with MS. One was from British Columbia, Canada, and the other from Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. These databases have been kept since the 1980s and have patient information. This includes date of diagnosis and disability scores over time. In Canada, the database information was linked to records from the provincial health system. In Wales, it was linked to National Health Service records. The data were used to estimate each patient's SES based on where the patient lived. The patients were divided into 5 groups based on their SES. Group 1 were those with the lowest SES and group 5 were those with the highest SES. The authors used statistics to analyze the relationship between SES and worsening of disability scores. The influence of SES on the time it took patients to change from relapsing-remitting MS to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) was also studied. This is important because patients with SPMS become disabled more quickly and do not respond well to treatment. The authors also made changes to account for differences such as age and sex among their study populations so that any findings could be attributed to differences in SES and not these other factors.

Evidence of an increased prevalence of multiple sclerosis: a population-based study of Tehran registry during 1999–2018

“…According to Hosseinzadeh et al [8], Tehran is considered as one of the high-frequency regions for MS. The high MS frequency in Tehran may be related to the rate of urbanization [20], the social and economic status [21,22], and air pollution [23][24][25]. In addition, better access to health services can play an important role and in turn lead to better diagnosis and case registration [26].…”

Evidence of an Increased Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis: A Population-Based Study of Tehran Registry during 1999–2018

“…According to Hosseinzadeh et al [8], Tehran is considered as one of the high-frequency regions for MS. The high MS frequency in Tehran may be related to the rate of urbanization [21], the social and economic status [22,23], and air pollution [24][25][26]. In addition, better access to health services can play an important role and in turn lead to better diagnosis and case registration [27].…”

Is There an Association Between Multiple Sclerosis Epidemic and Socioeconomic Status in Iran? - A Descriptive-analytical Cross-sectional Study

“…Therefore, there are a number of parameters involved in increasing the prevalence of MS such as genetic (e.g., the HLA class I and II genes) (10,11), lifestyle (e.g., dietary intake, exercise, drug abuse, smoking, and alcohol consumption) (12)(13)(14), and environmental (e.g., sun exposure and actinic damage) (15, 16) risk factors. Nowadays, the incidence of MS is increasing in developed countries so that it is more common in high socioeconomic classes with higher education, income, as well as good occupation (17,18). However, the role of socioeconomic status (SES) on the prevalence of MS in Iran has been less evaluated.…”