Life expectancy in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is approximately 7.5 years shorter than those without MS and comorbidities increase the risk of mortality, according to a population-based study of 5,797 people with MS and 28,807 age- and sex-matched controls.
Investigators used Cox proportional hazards regression to evaluate the association between comorbidity status and mortality and found:
• Median lifespan among MS patients is 75.9 years, compared with 83.4 years in the control group.
• MS was associated with a 2-fold increased risk of mortality.
• Diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and chronic lung disease increased death hazards in both populations, however, the association was lower in the MS group.
• Mortality rates from infectious and respiratory diseases were higher in the MS group.
• The most common cause of death in the MS group was nervous- or circulatory-system diseases.
Citation: Marrie RA, Elliott L, Marriott J, et al. Effect of comorbidity on mortality in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2015. pii:10.1212/WNL.0000000000001718.
Commentary: Multiple Sclerosis is considered a disease of the young. However, the young grow older and accumulate the burdens of living with other illness as well. Having one chronic disease does not prevent you from having another chronic illness and experiencing problems related to both. The more illnesses you accumulate, the harder it becomes to live life without disability and to live a long life. As much as we consider MS a disease that does not shorten life expectancy, that is simply not the case. Those with MS can experience a shorter lifespan and the concurrent complications related to infection and the illness itself clearly can result in a shortened lifespan. This article should reinforce the need and make us double our efforts to diagnose and treat MS early as well as effectively to prevent the long term premature morbidity and mortality of ineffectively and untreated MS. — Mark Gudesblatt, MD, Medical Director of the Comprehensive MS Care Center at South Shore Neurologic Associates in Islip, NY