Author Interviews, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 08.05.2013
Incidence of multiple sclerosis in multiple racial and ethnic groups
MedicalResearch.com eInterview with Annette Langer-Gould, MD, PhD
From the Department of Research and Evaluation Kaiser Permanente,
Southern California, Pasadena; and Neurology Department
Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Los Angeles Medical Center, CA.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Langer-Gould: The main findings of the study were that multiple sclerosis is more common in black women than in white women, which run contrary to the widely accepted belief that blacks are less susceptible to MS. In particular, we found that black patients had a 47 percent higher risk of MS than white patients, while Hispanic and Asian patients had a 50 percent and 80 percent lower risk compared to white patients, respectively. We also found that 70 percent of MS cases occurred in females, but this preponderance of females diagnosed was more pronounced among black patients than white patients. In addition, black women had a higher incidence of MS than white patients of both genders, while black men had a similar risk of being diagnosed with MS compared to white men. The lower risk among Hispanic and Asian patients was true for both sexes.
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