A population-based study comparing multiple sclerosis clinic users and non-users in British Columbia, Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Much clinical knowledge about multiple sclerosis (MS) has been gained from patients who attend MS specialty clinics. However, there is limited information about whether these patients are representative of the wider MS population. The objective of this study was to compare incident MS cases who were MS clinic users to non-users of the specialty MS clinics in British Columbia, Canada.

Methods

This was a retrospective record-linkage cohort study using prospectively collected data from the British Columbia Multiple Sclerosis database and province-wide health administrative databases.

Results

There were 2841 incident MS cases between 1996 and 2004 including 1648 (58%) that had registered at an MS clinic ('clinic cases') and 1193 (42%) that had not (

SUBMITTER: McKay KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5021105 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature