Skip to main content
. 2022 Nov 3;13:1017492. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.1017492

Table 2.

Sex and age-specific differences in health-care use for any reason between multiple sclerosis cases and controls: 5 years before the index date in the health administrative and clinical cohorts.

Administrative cohort Clinical cohort
MS casesa Controlsa MS casesa Controlsa
Crude rate
(per person-year)/
crude proportion (%)
Crude rate
(per person-year)/
crude proportion (%)
aRR (95% CI) Crude rate
(per person-year)/
crude proportion (%)
Crude rate
(per person-year)/
crude proportion (%)
aRR (95% CI)
Physician visits Males 11.4 6.83 1.67 (1.57–1.77) b 6.70 6.19 1.09 (0.91–1.30)
Females 14.9 10.2 1.45 (1.40–1.51) b 12.4 10.5 1.17 (1.06–1.30)
< 30 10.5 7.72 1.39 (1.27–1.52) b 9.34 8.41 1.13 (0.94–1.35)
30–49 13.1 8.87 1.49 (1.43–1.55) b 11.1 9.69 1.14 (1.02–1.27)
≥50 16.9 10.7 1.58 (1.49–1.68) b 13.9 10.4 1.28 (0.97–1.68)
Hospital admissions Males 0.202 0.117 1.73 (1.54–1.95) b 0.0832 0.0896 0.93 (0.61–1.45)
Females 0.249 0.171 1.43 (1.34–1.54) b 0.194 0.181 1.07 (0.88–1.30)
< 30 0.173 0.130 1.35 (1.13–1.62) b 0.144 0.143 1.02 (0.70–1.48)
30–49 0.207 0.145 1.43 (1.32–1.55) b 0.161 0.161 1.00 (0.80–1.23)
≥50 0.312 0.189 1.65 (1.49–1.82) b 0.261 0.174 1.40 (0.84–2.34)
Any prescription filled Males 94.0 87.3 1.08 (1.06–1.09) b 82.8 80.9 1.02 (0.96–1.09)
Females 97.2 93.0 1.04 (1.04–1.05) b 93.8 89.9 1.04 (1.02–1.07)
< 30 96.7 91.9 1.05 (1.04–1.07) 91.8 89.6 1.02 (0.98–1.07)
30–49 95.6 90.5 1.06 (1.05–1.06) 90.8 86.3 1.05 (1.02–1.08)
≥50 97.6 93.1 1.05 (1.04–1.06) 91.6 91.7 1.00 (0.93–1.07)

aRR, adjusted rate ratio; CI, confidence interval.

bold = P < 0.05 for sub-group.

aphysician visits and hospital admissions represented as crude rates; “any” prescription filled represented as crude proportions.

bBased on the likelihood ratio test, the rate ratios statistically differed (P < 0.05) between males and females or between the age categories: < 30, 30–49 and ≥50 years.

The post-hoc Bonferroni adjusted P-values derived when each age-group was directly compared against each other in the administrative cohort were as follows: physician visits (< 30 vs. 30–49: P = 0.54; < 30 vs. ≥50: P = 0.05; 30-49 vs. ≥50: P = 0.27), hospitalizations (< 30 vs. 30-49: P = 1; < 30 vs. ≥50: P = 0.14; 30-49 vs. ≥50: P = 0.10), prescriptions-filled (< 30 vs. 30–49: P = 1.00; < 30 vs. ≥50: P = 1.00; 30–49 vs. ≥50: P = 0.58).