Hi all.
Just wondered if there are any good charts or graphs or just numbers showing research on ms patients on types of ms and the range of ages of onset.
Many thanks if anyone has any ideas on that.
If you follow this down it will give you some of the facts.
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Hi Dan I’ve a vague memory of having seen such things - including the differences in frequency between Men and Women and in general there are tons of stats on MS out there.
One thing i do know is that a lot of the ‘historical’ data on e.g. time to Secondary Progressive, time to wheelchair use etc often predates the widespread availability and use of DMTs and certainly predates the more recent ones.
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Ah right thanks for the info Hank.
Cheers I’ll have a look.
Just to add that I Can’t say I know much about the details but I do know it’s not straightforward.
The development and progress varies with sex ( a lot more women than men develop MS) and also with race I think
Some symptoms are sort of hidden, not noticed and it can be decades before the ‘patient’ feels something needs looking at.
MS Symptoms are sort of non specific to MS and can be very general. The medical profession won’t recognise the condition immediately.
I’m thinking that age at onset could well be affected by general health- e.g smoking and obesity are seen as affecting the development of MS.
I’ve looked around and there are a fair few papers on age at onset or first diagnosis. Interestingly there seems to have been a slight shift towards older ages but that could be something to do with people living longer and , to be a bit simplistic, not dying earlier as a result of cancer.
I was in my early - mid 50s when diagnosed but looking further back I can see what might have been symptoms of MS in my 40s ( things that didn’t bother me and which passed apart from suddenly developing vertigo in some situations . I used to be a hill walker and suddenly found I couldn’t deal with ridges and situations where the horizon- horizontal and vertical wasn’t quite clear).
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I have often wondered which other diseases have a a rate of diagnosis decreases with age? I have seen any explanation for this.
I think there is an assumption that it is a disease for the young and some of the symptoms can come with old age.
There is a folklore in MS that is not challenged and people diagnosed at a later age tend to be lumped in with those you have suffered for many years. Trials often have a cut off age of 55 or less so there is no data available for late developers.
There are some trials that take older participants, but they are focused on people who have been diagnosed years earlier rather than the newly diagnosed. Around 1 in 6 people are diagnosed after 55.
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