Table 2.

Comparison of characteristics of the study population with those of MS populations from three US communities [16].

Variable		Study population N=3911	Texas (Lubbock and 19-County surrounding area) N=182	Missouri (Independence and Sugar Creek) N=106	Ohio (Lorain County) N=320
Sex (female)		76.73%	80.1%	81.1%	74.1%
Age distribution (years)		N=2239
	<30	20.23%	10.4%	3.8%	3.1%
	30-39	26.89%	32.4%	12.3%	10.6%
	40-49	38.32%	26.9%	37.7%	30.3%
	50-59	9.38%	9.3%	32.1%	31.9%
	60-69	5.05%	2.2%	10.4%	12.5%
	>70	0.13%	0.5%	3.8%	11.6%