Disability outcomes in early-stage African American and White people with multiple sclerosis

Long-Term Effectiveness and Safety of Natalizumab in African American and Hispanic/Latino Patients with Early Relapsing–Remitting Multiple Sclerosis: STRIVE Data Analysis

“…This post hoc analysis of STRIVE represents the first prospective realworld effectiveness and safety data published for a high-efficacy monoclonal antibody DMT in patients with early RRMS who self-identify as Black/AA. As research has suggested a more aggressive disease course in Black/AA than in non-Hispanic White patients [17][18][19][20][21], patients who self-identified as non-Hispanic White were included as a comparator group in this post hoc The only difference found between the two subgroups regarding baseline characteristics was T2 lesion volume, with the Black/AA subgroup having a higher T2 lesion volume compared to the non-Hispanic White subgroup. This finding is consistent with that observed in the OPERA trials, where patients of African descent had higher T2 lesion volumes than those of non-African descent [1].…”

Current opinion: Racial and ethnic health disparities in multiple sclerosis: considering the social determinants of health

“…This implies that unmeasured factors of race/ethnicity were not included. The difference in results from these studies could be explained by different measurements of SDoH [14 ▪ ,17 ▪▪ ]. NLI are multifactorial indexes based on census tract level data, which represent more measurements than used in the prospective cohort [14 ▪ ,17 ▪▪ ].…”

“…-5.87 African--American coeff. -7.99) [14 ▪ ]. A faster time to disability progression continues to be observed for Black and Hispanic Americans despite more frequent escalation to high efficacy therapy and similar rates and timing of starting DMT [14 ▪ ].…”

“…Whether worse outcomes are the direct result of adverse SDoH is not clear. Nevertheless, recent observations continue to substantiate that Black people with MS suffer from worse manual dexterity and cognition even early in the disease [14 ▪ ]. Within 6 years of MS onset, African--American participants had higher 9 hole peg test (9HPT) times than the White participants (22.55 ± 3.12 vs. 19.66 ± 2,44), and had lower SDMT scores as well (39.58 ± 9.64 vs. 45.52 ± 7.12) [14 ▪ ].…”

“…Nevertheless, recent observations continue to substantiate that Black people with MS suffer from worse manual dexterity and cognition even early in the disease [14 ▪ ]. Within 6 years of MS onset, African--American participants had higher 9 hole peg test (9HPT) times than the White participants (22.55 ± 3.12 vs. 19.66 ± 2,44), and had lower SDMT scores as well (39.58 ± 9.64 vs. 45.52 ± 7.12) [14 ▪ ]. Linear regression showed these differences continued to be significant when adjusted for age, sex, total income, BMI, and number of comorbidities (9HPT compared to healthy controls White coeff.…”