Age is an important factor in the disease burden of multiple sclerosis (MS), as rising age both impacts disease course and brings with it additional risk of comorbidities. However, disease duration may be an even more important factor than age in reaching disability milestones, according to Viktor von Wyl, PhD, project leader, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Age is an important factor in the disease burden of multiple sclerosis (MS), as rising age both impacts disease course and brings with it additional risk of comorbidities. However, disease duration may be an even more important factor than age in reaching disability milestones, according to Viktor von Wyl, PhD, project leader, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Transcript
What did your research find with respect to how age and disease duration impact the disability burden of MS?
I’m working with the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Registry, which is fairly representative of the population of persons with MS in Switzerland, and we had a special interest in finding out how these comorbidities and specific milestones are distributed across different age groups, but also across different strata of disease duration.
So we started out by a table that looks like a chess board; so in one dimension, you have age categories, and in the other, you have disease duration categories. We just looked at frequencies. So how frequently does hypertension occur in the Swiss population of MS?
Then, based on that, we already saw some patterns that were quite interesting. For instance, hypertension was really rising across the age dimension, but not so much across the MS disease duration dimension. Of course, that sparked our interest in looking into it in more detail, because eventually, this is information that is relevant to the clinicians because it tells us something about the disease burden of MS.
What we found was quite striking. Namely that the disability milestones, as expected, they correlate with disease duration, but only loosely with age. So we found actually that age was not so important up until the age of 60, when disability increases. So disability is measured mostly by the ability to walk, so there we found that this frequency spiked, but then became flat again.
But on the other hand, with disease duration, it was really more like a steady increase as would be expected, because this is one of the effects of multiple sclerosis. With other diseases, like comorbidities, we found that age was the main driver, whereas MS disease duration actually had no or only a small effect.
Now, what needs to be added is that other studies have found that, compared to the general population, MS actually increases the burden of comorbidities. So here, we only looked at the population of person who already have MS. But within this group, we didn’t find an effect of MS duration.
HIVconsvX Vaccine Shows Safety, Immune Response in People on ART
March 10th 2025This research on a T-cell–targeting vaccines in HIV has implications for future study design to incorporate consideration of age and years on antiretroviral therapy (ART) to evaluate the level of immune reconstitution.
Read More
The Importance of Examining and Preventing Atrial Fibrillation
August 29th 2023At this year’s American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention, Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, delivered the Honorary Fellow Award Lecture, “The Imperative to Focus on the Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation,” as the recipient of this year’s Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology award.
Listen
Promoting Equity in Public Health: Policy, Investment, and Community Engagement Solutions
June 28th 2022On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, on the core takeaways of his keynote session at AHIP 2022 on public health policy and other solutions to promote equitable health and well-being.
Listen
Ruxolitinib Cream Shows Long-Term Safety in AD, Potential for PN Treatment
March 8th 2025Two posters presented at the 2025 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting reaffirmed the impact of ruxolitinib cream (Opzelura; Incyte) in atopic dermatitis (AD), while late-breaking research highlighted its potential efficacy in prurigo nodularis (PN).
Read More
Use of AI Lets Health System Find Lung Cancer at Early Stages
March 8th 2025Artificial intelligence (AI) helps a Sarasota, Florida, health system catch lung nodules that appear on CT scans for patients treated for scores of conditions, allowing them to be referred for a possible lung cancer diagnosis.
Read More