(146) Prevalence of multiple sclerosis in women of childbearing age potential in Europe: A contribution from IMI ConCEPTION

Publication Number: 1141

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disease generally diagnosed during childbearing age. Women taking Disease Modifying Therapies (DMTs) might want to get pregnant or can become pregnant given that many pregnancies occur unplanned. Before performing drug utilisation studies and safety studies of DMT exposures in pregnancy using routine European health care databases it is essential to evaluate the accuracy of the reporting of MS in such databases. One method of external validation is to compare the prevalence of MS in these routine databases with the prevalence in Europe.

Objectives: To identify studies published in Europe that reported the prevalence of multiple sclerosis in women of childbearing age (age 15-29).

Methods: Embase, MEDLINE and OVID were searched. Studies were included if they were published from January 1st 2000 to July 6th 2022 using the following terms: Multiple sclerosis AND prevalence AND (EU OR European Union OR Finland OR France OR Germany OR Italy OR Norway OR Spain OR UK OR United Kingdom OR England OR Wales OR Scotland).

Results: 634 studies were identified, and twenty-eight studies met our inclusion criteria. Twenty-four studies presented prevalence estimates at the regional and district level, and only four presented national or country level prevalence estimates including France, Germany, and UK. The definition of MS was based on Poser criteria, McDonald criteria, or Thompson criteria or International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code 9 or 10. One study, utilizing data from the French national health insurance database from 2012 estimated a prevalence of MS per 100,000 which increased according to age in women (age 15 to 19= 17.7) to (age 45-49= 411.1). The UK study which used data from the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) and the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) UK between 1990-2010 estimated a prevalence (per 100,000) for age 20-29 years (57.1), age 30-39 years (260.2), and age 40-49years (459.2). Another study in France that used data form insured patients of the French health insurance scheme for independent workers and a study in Germany, which used nationwide outpatient claims only presented graphs for all ages in their studies. Both of the studies showed an increase in prevalence of MS with age in women of childbearing age. These studies reported that the prevalence of MS increased gradually from 2012 to 2019. Both studies discussed that there were regional variations.

Conclusions: In all studies an increase with age was observed. Regional variations were also observed which could be attributed to genetic or environmental factors and an interaction between them. Details about the incidence and prevalence by age as well as the different definitions will be presented in detail in this poster.