Employment
It is common for people with MS to give up work or reduce working hours, often because the burden of physical disability, cognitive difficulties, fatigue or depression becomes too heavy [1,2].
In the BENEFIT-11 study, 73.4% of patients continued to work compared with 81.3% at baseline. Over 80% of those employed continued to work 20 hours or more per week [3].
The data compare in-line or favorably with other evaluations among patients with MS:
- A survey of 4,590 German MS patients of working age reported an employment/self-employment rate of 51%. These patients had an average disease duration of 16 years [4].
- Another review of 1,727 MS patients in New Zealand with an average of 15 years since symptom onset found that more than half (54%) were unemployed [5].
- In a longitudinal Australian cohort study (N=207), 74% of the patients continued to be employed 10 years after a first episode of central nervous system demyelination [6]. In comparison: BENEFIT-11 reported an employment rate of 73% [7].
Employment status remained largely stable for the majority of patients in the BENEFIT study [3] and compared favorably with other recent evaluations of MS patients [4-6]
References
- Kobelt G et al. Mult Scler 2017; 23(2S): 4-16. Return to content
- Kobelt G et al. Mult Scler 2019; 25(5): 740-9. Return to content
- Kappos L et al. Neurology 2016; 87(10): 978-87. Return to content
- Flachenecker P et al. Mult Scler 2017; 23(2_suppl): 78-90. Return to content
- Pearson JF et al. Acta Neurol Scand 2017; 136(3): 223-32. Return to content
- Zarghami A et al. Mult Scler. 2022;28(11):1793-1807. Return to content
