Table 1.
Participant characteristics.
| Characteristic | Total completed (N=507) | Validated samplea (n=386) | Current issue (n=45) | Past issue (n=188) | Never had issue (n=153) | ||||||
| Age (years), mean (SD) | 49.1 (10.4) | 49.7 (10.2) | 50.2 (9.7) | 48.9 (10.8) | 50.5 (9.7) | ||||||
| Female, n (%) | 397 (78.3) | 308 (79.8) | 39 (86.7) | 154 (81.9) | 115 (75.2) | ||||||
| White, n (%) | 441 (89.6) | 335 (89.8) | 40 (90.9) | 161 (88.5) | 134 (91.2) | ||||||
| Ethnicity, n (%) | |||||||||||
|
|
Not Hispanic | 462 (94.7) | 357 (95.7) | 41 (93.2) | 173 (95.6) | 143 (96.6) | |||||
| Number of comorbidities, median (range, IQRb) | 1 (1-27, 1.0) | 1 (1-27, 2.0) | 1 (1-21, 3.0) | 1 (1-27, 1.0) | 1 (1-15, 1.0) | ||||||
| Educationc, n (%) | |||||||||||
|
|
High school or less | 53 (12.7) | 39 (12.2) | 6 (16.2) | 21 (13.6) | 12 (9.4) | |||||
|
|
Some college | 165 (39.6) | 126 (39.4) | 18 (48.6) | 56 (36.1) | 52 (40.6) | |||||
|
|
College degree | 131 (31.4) | 107 (33.4) | 5 (13.5) | 57 (36.8) | 45 (35.2) | |||||
|
|
Postgraduate work | 68 (16.3) | 48 (15.0) | 8 (21.6) | 21 (13.6) | 19 (14.8) | |||||
| High Health Literacyd, n (%) | |||||||||||
|
|
Quite a bit or extremely | 234 (66.1) | 182 (65.5) | 25 (55.5) | 138 (73.4) | 127 (83.0) | |||||
| Health Insurance Statuse, n (%) | |||||||||||
|
|
Employer based | 209 (47.5) | 162 (47) | 18 (43.9) | 76 (45.5) | 68 (49.6) | |||||
|
|
Direct | 34 (7.7) | 26 (7.5) | 2 (4.9) | 14 (8.4) | 10 (7.3) | |||||
|
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Medicare | 131 (29.8) | 103 (29.9) | 10 (24.4) | 56 (33.5) | 37 (27.0) | |||||
|
|
Medicaid | 38 (8.6) | 32 (9.3) | 8 (19.5) | 11 (6.6) | 13 (9.5) | |||||
|
|
Military | 7 (1.6) | 7 (2.0) | 1 (2.4) | 3 (1.8) | 3 (2.2) | |||||
|
|
Veterans Affairs | 9 (2.1) | 8 (2.3) | 1 (2.4) | 2 (1.2) | 5 (3.6) | |||||
|
|
None | 8 (1.8) | 4 (1.2) | 1 (2.4) | 3 (1.8) | 0 (0) | |||||
|
|
Other | 4 (0.8) | 3 (0.8) | 0 (0) | 2 (1.2) | 1 (0.7) | |||||
| PDDSf score, median (range, IQR) | 4 (1-8, 3.0) | 4 (1-8, 3.0) | 4 (1-8, 3.0) | 4 (1-8, 3.0) | 4 (1-8, 4.0) | ||||||
| Had relapse during access issue (self-reported), n (%) | N/Ag | N/A | 22 (48.9) | 56 (29.8) | N/A | ||||||
| Average delay in weeksh,i, mean (SD) | N/A | N/A | N/A | 8 (16.5) | N/A | ||||||
aSubgroups (current, past, or never had a disease-modifying therapy [DMT] issue) were drawn from a validated sample based on the questions: “Which option best describes your experience with accessing or receiving your DMT medication for MS?” “Never” includes only those who selected none of the DMT access issues and “never” to “Which option best describes your experience with accessing or receiving your DMT medication for MS?”
bIQR: interquartile range.
cValidated sample, n=320
dValidated sample, n=278
eValidated sample, n=345
fPDDS: Patient Determined Disease Steps.
gN/A: not applicable.
hAsked only of those who eventually received the originally prescribed DMT.
iPast issue, n=64.