| dc.description.abstract | Introduction
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease. Infection is one of the
commonly reported outcomes in patients who are under disease-modifying treatments
(DMTs). The Influence of patient characteristics on risk of infection was well documented
in clinical trials. However, the understanding of patient characteristics and their impact
on treatment outcomes in real-world settings, particularly in observational studies,
remains limited.
Objective
To examine patient characteristics like demographics, geographical factors, and
socioeconomic factors in observational studies investigating the relative risk of infection
among individuals on DMTs for MS.
Methods
A systematic literature review was conducted according to the Preferred
Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We
included observational studies that examined the impact of DMTs use on the occurrence
of infection in the MS population. A search was performed in PubMed and Embase and
key patient characteristics were extracted from the included studies.
Results
A total of 30 studies were included in the final analysis. The sample size ranged from 56
to 15,375 participants. The mean age of the study participants ranged from 24.5 to 54.4
years. The proportion of women ranged from 60% to 100%. The geographic
representation of the included studies are Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and
Oceania. The disease duration ranged from 2 to 17.7 years. Ethnicity, Expanded Disability
Status Score (EDSS), Socio-Economic Status (SES), and treatment history were missing in
many studies.
Conclusion
Within this sub-group, our findings indicate that people who are under DMTs for MS
consists of younger adults and a higher proportion of women. The reporting of patient
characteristics such as ethnicity, SES, EDSS score, and previous use of DMTs were
inconsistently reported in the observational studies. This highlights the need for a
standardised reporting structure to gain a better understanding of the specific patient
characteristics that are associated with infectious risk. | |
