Employment, disability pension and income for children with parental multiple sclerosis.
BACKGROUND
Little is known about the consequences of parental multiple sclerosis (MS) on offspring's socioeconomic circumstances.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate employment, disability pension and income in offspring of parents with MS compared with matched reference persons in a nationwide register-based cohort study.


METHODS
All Danish-born persons with onset of MS during 1950-1986 were retrieved from the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry. Their offspring were identified using the Civil Registration System. One random offspring from each sibship was matched by sex and year of birth with eight random reference persons.


RESULTS
We included 2456 MS offspring and 19,648 reference persons. At age 30, employment was lower among MS offspring than reference children (odds ratio (OR): 0.89; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.84-0.95; p = 0.0003), and they more often received disability pension (OR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.15-1.50; p < 0.0001) at ages 30 and 40 but not at age 50. Although the mean income was not significantly lower for the MS offspring cohort, most of them attained an annual personal income below 250,000 DKK (Danish krone), that is, ~33,650 EUR (OR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.84-0.99; p = 0.04).


CONCLUSIONS
Having had a parent with MS may affect employment and increase the risk of disability pension and low income in adult life.
Danish Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark/University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Julie Yoon
JY
Moberg
National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Bjarne
B
Laursen
The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark/Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Clinical Institute, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Nils
N
Koch-Henriksen
National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Lau Caspar
LC
Thygesen
Paediatric Department, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark/Departments of Public Health and Science in Nursing, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Anne
A
Brødsgaard
Danish Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark/University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Per
P
Soelberg Sørensen
Danish Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark/The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Melinda
M
Magyari
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D010290:Parents; D010415:Pensions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors
Cohort studies; disability pension; employment; epidemiology; income; multiple sclerosis; registry; retirement