Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis in Rosario, Argentina

Abstract

Background: The prevalence and incidence of Multiple Sclerosis have been increasing worldwide over the last decades. Most of the publications during the last years outstand the prevalence in Europe, North America and Latin America. In Argentina, data published on this topic is scarce and most of the studies took place in Buenos Aires. In a recent publication, we reported an MS prevalence rate of 30.3/100,000 in the overall extension of Santa Fe, Argentina, and in that study, we noticed that MS seemed to be more frequent in the southern region of the province.

Objective: In this study we aimed to estimate the prevalence of MS in Rosario (the third most populated district of Argentina), placed in the southeastern part of Santa Fe province.

Methods: This is a population based, cross-sectional study. We studied the members of the Province´s medical Care Program, a health maintenance organization of the public-sector employees that offers medical and health services to 567,819 members in the province 163,513 of whom have permanent residence in Rosario department, being a large representative sample. The selected prevalence date was 30 June 2019. Cases of MS were detected with a thorough search in the electronic databases of affiliates, linking and aggregating datasets.

Results: Seventy-nine MS cases were detected. The mean age was 47.7 (SD 13.5); female to male ratio was 3 to 1; the most frequent phenotype was relapsing-remitting (82.3%) followed by secondary-progressive (15.2%) and primary-progressive (2.5%). The crude prevalence rate of MS in Rosario as on 30 June 2019 was 48.3/100,000 inhabitants (95% CI: 48.28 - 48.35), 63.7/100,000 for females and 28.3/100,000 for males. The age-standardised MS prevalence rate was 43.4/100,000 inhabitants (95% CI:43.37 - 43.43) while the sex-standardised prevalence was estimated at 46.7/100,000 inhabitants (95% CI: 46.68 - 46.74). Making a proportional and linear projection to the total number of inhabitants, we deemed a total of 578 MS cases in Rosario, according to the 2010 census, and projected 620 cases by July 2019.

Conclusion: This is the first study that provides epidemiological data of MS prevalence for Rosario. It confirms that there are differences in the distribution of MS in Santa Fe that favour the aggregation of cases in the southern part of the province. It also supplies updated and relevant data on the distribution of MS in Argentina and Latin America.

Keywords: MS in Argentina; MS in Latin America; MS in Rosario; Multiple Sclerosis prevalence.