Multiple sclerosis in Fife.
Patients in Fife with multiple sclerosis were identified from three sources: a postal questionnaire to all general practices in Fife, hospital discharge data, rehabilitation service database. A total of 508 patients were identified in a population of 354,273 giving a crude prevalence rate of 143/100,000. The Standardised Prevalence Rate was 178/100,000. The sex ratio was 2.43 females to males. The prevalence was higher than identified in southern parts of the United Kingdom and similar to northern Scotland. A total of 200 (40%) cases were identified as having relapsing-remitting disease and of these 151 were ambulant, making them eligible for treatment with interferon beta-lb under current licensing criteria. Only 90 (60%) of the 151 currently eligible for the drug were under the care of a specialist and almost half the practices felt that they would change their referring habits. These factors may have implications for the workload of specialist clinics.
Grant
R M
RM
Markinch Medical Centre, Fife.
Carver
A D
AD
Sloan
R L
RL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012984:Software; D015996:Survival Rate; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology