A study presented at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) 38th Annual Meeting, summarized demographic data on subpopulations of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the US based on findings from administrative health claims (AHC) data sets.

The cohort for the study included 909 230 individuals aged 1 to 89 years with a confirmed MS diagnosis from November 1, 2015, to December 31, 2023. The data also included 984 608 health care providers (HCPs), 184 679 health care organizations, 285 payers, and 34 664 658 visits. The researchers stratified the data by age, sex, race and ethnicity, and location.

The data showed that the modal value for age was 45 to 86 years (399 099 patients or 44%). From this group, most patients were older at 65 to 88 years (308 251 patients or 34%), followed by 176 765 patients who were 25 to 44 years older (19%). In terms of gender, the study found that more patients were female at 666 443 (73%) vs 234 047 (26%) male patients.

For data on race and ethnicity, 10 804 (1%) identified as Asian or Pacific Islander, 65 959 (7%) identified as Hispanic or Latinx, 104 437 (11%) identified as Black or African American, and 490 459 (54%) identified as non-Hispanic White. Those who did not provide race and ethnicity data were 209,345 (23%) of the patients, and 28,226 (3%) selected “Other.” The states that had the highest population of people with MS were California, New York, Florida, and Texas (68 297 [8%], 63 678 [7%], 55 681 [6%], and 55 043 [6%], respectively).

Overall, the authors note that the analysis pulling data from insurance claims yielded “compelling” results. These include that women have a higher rate of diagnosis with MS compared to mean. In addition, White individuals showed the highest occurrence of MS, followed by the Black of African American population.

Reference

Brown G. Demographics of the population in the United States with multiple sclerosis. Presented at: CMSC 2024; May 29-June 1, 2024; Nashville, TN; Abstract LB06.