Certain comorbidities are more prevalent in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) than without, an effect that varies by sex and age group. This research was presented at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers, held May 30-June 2, 2018, in Nashville, Tennessee.

The study researchers examined data from the US database of the IMS Health Real World Data Adjudicated Claims between 2011 and 2015. They included subjects with at least 2 claims of MS in any of the database’s diagnosis fields. Subjects were classified according to their sex and age (18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 54, and 55 to 65 years) in the first analysis, after which the rate of common comorbid conditions in MS were examined.

The study researchers compared rates of prevalence between subjects according to MS status, sex, and age group using exact matching to match those with MS with those without MS in each group. Factors in exact matching included geographic area, index-year quarter, and age.

In this retrospective, administrative claims database analysis, individuals with MS showed statistically higher rates of anxiety, gastrointestinal disease, hypertension, depression, hyperlipidemia, and thyroid disease than those without MS across every age group (P <.0001). People with MS also had significantly higher rates of chronic lung disease, diabetes, and arthritis than those without MS in all age groups (P <.0001), except between 55 and 65 years old [wp_ad_camp_3] Read more here