To examine the prevalence of vascular co-morbidities in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) compared to the general population in a racially diverse and low socioeconomic population

Despite the importance of co-morbidity, race and socioeconomic status on health outcomes, epidemiological studies on the prevalence and incidence of vascular co-morbidities in patients multiple sclerosis in cohorts with racial heterogeneity and low socioeconomic status  are lacking.

Preliminary de-identified aggregate data was obtained utilizing TriNetX, a global federated health research network providing access to statistics on electronic medical records from almost 1 million patients in one inner city health care organization (HCO). The majority of patients receiving care from this HCO are racially diverse and have low socioeconomic status.  A query was built to identify the number of patients in the general population with the following co-morbidities:  diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and disorders of lipoprotein metabolism and other lipidemias. A similar query was performed but with the addition of an MS diagnosis. The odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were calculated using Medcalc® statistical software. If statistically significant differences were identified through this preliminary analysis then a multivariable logistic regression analysis would be completed using de-identified individual data.

Data queried on October 4, 2018 identified a total of 952,080 patients in our database with 1,720 patients with incident multiple sclerosis. In patients with MS compared to the general population, the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) were:  hypertension, 2.40 (2.17-2.67; p<0.0001); disorders of lipoprotein metabolism 2.16 (1.93-2.42; p<0.0001); diabetes, 2.01 (1.75-2.31; p< 0.001). Multi-variate analysis data to be collected and shared at meeting.

Preliminary univariate analysis suggest an increase in the prevalence of vascular co-morbidities in MS patients compared to the general population among an inner city low socioeconomic cohort.