Epidemiology of Multiple Sclerosis in Austria.

Background: To assess the incidence rate and prevalence ratio of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Austria. Methods: Hospital discharge diagnosis and MS-specific immunomodulatory treatment prescriptions from public health insurances, covering 98% of Austrian citizens with health insurance were used to extrapolate incidence and prevalence numbers based on the capture-recapture method. Results: A total of 1,392,629 medication prescriptions and 40,956 hospitalizations were extracted from 2 data sources, leading to a total of 13,205 patients. The incidence rate and prevalence ratio of MS in Austria based on the capture-recapture method were 19.5/100,000 person-years (95% CI 14.3-24.7) and 158.9/100,000 (95% CI 141.2-175.9), respectively. Female to male ratio was 1.6 for incidence and 2.2 for prevalence. Conclusions: Incidence rates and prevalence ratios of MS in our study are within the upper range of comparable studies across many European countries as well as the United States. (C) 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel