Abstract
Objective
To determine differences in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension in Black patients
compared with White patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Design
Cross-sectional database review.
Setting
Large academic medical center research records database.
Participants
A total of 3191 patient cases (N=3191; 77% female, 34% Black) identified by MS diagnosis
within the medical record.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Diagnosis codes for type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Body mass index (BMI), race,
age, and sex were collected. Analysis of variance (continuous variables) and chi-square
analyses (categorical variables) were conducted to determine differences in obesity,
diabetes, and hypertension between race and sex. Logistic regression was conducted
to determine odds ratios (ORs) of developing diabetes and hypertension based on race,
sex, BMI, and age.
Results
Black patients were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed as having diabetes (OR,
2.15 [95% CI, 1.70-2.72]; P<.0001) or hypertension (OR, 2.44 [95% CI, 2.05-2.91], P<.0001) compared with White patients. Sex did not present a greater likelihood of
being diagnosed as having diabetes; however, men were 1.22 times more likely be diagnosed
as having hypertension compared with women (95% CI, 1.01-1.49; P=.0439). Increased age and BMI were also significantly associated with likelihood
of diagnosis of diabetes and hypertension (age: diabetes OR, 1.05 [95% CI, 1.04-1.06],
P<.0001; hypertension OR, 1.06 [95% CI, 1.05-1.06], P<.0001; BMI: diabetes obese vs normal: OR, 2.11 [95% CI, 1.43-3.11], P=.0002; hypertension: obese vs normal: OR, 1.72 [95% CI, 1.39-2.13], P<.0001).
Conclusions
Black patients with MS are significantly more likely to have cardiometabolic conditions
than White patients. These conditions have been associated with poorer health outcomes
for people with MS and may have some effect on the differences in MS disease course
reported in Black patients.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
BMI (body mass index), ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision), ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision), i2b2 (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside), MS (multiple sclerosis), OR (odds ratio), UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham), US (United States)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 30, 2021
Accepted:
October 4,
2021
Received in revised form:
September 10,
2021
Received:
May 7,
2021
Footnotes
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award no. UL1TR003096. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Disclosures: none
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
