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. 2021 Apr 8;11(1):7727.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86347-3.

Epidemiology, treatment patterns and healthcare utilizations in multiple sclerosis in Taiwan

Chia-Yun Hsu #  1 , Long-Sun Ro #  2 , Li-Ju Chen  1 , Chun-Wei Chang  2 , Kuo-Hsuan Chang  2 , I-Hsuan Wu  3 , Amy Lin  3 , Fei-Yuan Hsiao  4   5   6
Affiliations

Epidemiology, treatment patterns and healthcare utilizations in multiple sclerosis in Taiwan

Chia-Yun Hsu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

"Real-world" data on the nationwide epidemiology and treatment patterns of multiple sclerosis (MS) is very scarce in Asia. This study is aim to evaluate the 10-years trends in epidemiology and treatment patterns of MS with Taiwan's National Health Insurance Database (NHIRD). Patients aged 20 years or older and were newly diagnosed with MS between 2007 and 2016 were identified. The crude incidences of MS were presented annually and stratified by sex and age. Baseline characteristics and treatment patterns, particularly disease-modifying drugs (DMDs), were also analyzed. This study included 555 MS patients (mean age was 36.9 and 74.4% were female). The crude incidence rate of MS decreased slightly from 0.43 per 100,000 persons in 2007 to 0.24 per 100,000 persons in 2015. The female to male ratios remained mainly between 2 to 3. Approximately 80% of MS patients received initial DMDs, with interferon β-1a as the dominant one. Furthermore, 37.5% of MS patients received subsequent DMDs, with fingolimod being the most frequently used. The median times from diagnosis to initial and to subsequent DMDs were 77 and 1239 days, respectively. This nationwide study provides up-to-date and sophisticated estimates of MS epidemiology and treatment pattern in "real-world" setting in Taiwan.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ms. Chen L. J. and Dr. Hsiao F. Y. received a research grant from Merck Taiwan Ltd., an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Dr. Wu I.H. and Ms. Lin A. are employees of Merck Taiwan Ltd., an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Ms. Hsu. C.Y., Dr. Ro L.S., Dr. Chang C.W. and Dr. Chang K. H. declare no potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart describing the enrollment of the study population.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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