To describe the demographic and socioeconomic status of the current population of patients with MS and to assess the risks of losing all income from earnings or receiving disability pension.

Numerous studies have shown that the average age of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) is increasing. With higher age typically comes a higher degree of disability. The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score has been used as outcome measure for decades. However the impact of disease experienced by the patients may raise other concerns such as fatigue, sleep or their ability to maintain their job.

The nation-wide population-based Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry provided data linked with the Danish population and income statistics registry and Danish Rationale Economic Agents Model (DREAM) database. Risks of reaching socioeconomic milestones were assessed using cause-specific Cox models and cumulative incidence functions, and were compared to healthy controls.

The current Danish population of patients with MS consists of 16.297 patients, of which 45.93% were over the age 55 years. Active DMT was registered for 45.8% of all patients with 41.4% of these on a DMT of high efficacy. 51.1% of all patients and 34.7% of controls had no income from earnings in 2018, while 40.6% of all patients and 9.7% of controls were or had been on disability pension. The risk of losing all income from earnings was also higher for the patients (Hazard Ratio (HR) peaking at 3.3 for ages 35-44), and the same was the case for receiving disability pension (HR peaking at 22.1 for the 25-34 years old). Likewise, the absolute risks of both outcomes were higher for the patients at all ages.

The Danish patients with MS are at a higher risk of losing all income from earnings and at a much higher risk of receiving disability pension compared with healthy controls.