Background-Survivors of preterm birth constitute a new generation of young adults, but little is known about their long-term health. We investigated the association between gestational age (GA) and risk of high blood pressure (HBP) in young Swedish men and whether GA modified the risk of HBP; ie, whether HBP was related to being born small for gestational age (SGA

ADL-ability is the most important predictor of societal costs of care in community dwellings irrespective of country and should therefore be central in the economic evaluation of Alzheimer's disease therapies.

For patients residing in community dwellings, the direct influence of patients' cognition on caregiver burden is limited and rather mediated by other disease indicators. Instead, the patients' ADL-abilities are the main predictor of informal care hours, and both ADL-abilities and behavioral disturbances are important predictors of perceived caregiver burden, where the latter has the strongest effect. These results were consistent across Sweden, U.K. and the U.S.A.

Objective: Achieving therapeutic goals in multiple sclerosis (MS) requires strict adherence to treatment schedules. This retrospective study analyzed persistence with, and adherence to, fingolimod compared with injectable/ infusible disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) in patients with MS. Methods:Patients in the PharMetrics Plus TM US administrative claims database with at least one prescription for, or administration of, fingolimod, glatiramer acetate (GA), interferon (IFN), or natalizumab (index DMT) between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011 were included. Patients were naïve to index DMT (no claim in the previous 360 days) and had an MS diagnosis code within 360 days of the first index DMT prescription. Outcomes were persistence, risk of discontinuing index DMT (evaluated by a Cox proportional hazards model), adherence (measured using the medication possession ratio [MPR] and proportion of days covered [PDC] in patients with at least two index DMT prescriptions), and the risk of being non-adherent (MPR580% and PDC 580%, assessed using a logistic regression model). Results:The study included 3750 patients (fingolimod, n ¼ 889; GA, n ¼ 1233; any IFN, n ¼ 1341; natalizumab, n ¼ 287). Discontinuation rates (fingolimod, 27.9%; GA, 39.5%; IFN, 43.7%; natalizumab, 39.5%; all p50.001) and risk of discontinuation were significantly higher (hazard ratios vs fingolimod [95% confidence interval]: GA, 1.75 [1.49-2.07]; IFN, 2.01 [1.71-2.37]; natalizumab, 1.53 [1.22-1.91]) for patients receiving other DMTs compared with fingolimod. The risk of being non-adherent was also lower for patients in the fingolimod cohort than the other treatment cohorts, irrespective of whether nonadherence was defined as MPR580% (p50.05 for all) or PDC580% (p50.05 for GA and IFN). Limitations:As with all studies assessing real-world treatment patterns it is unclear if medications were used as prescribed. Conclusions:In a real-world setting, persistence with, and adherence to, oral fingolimod was higher than for injectable and infusible DMTs.