Sex Differences in Multiple Sclerosis Patient Cohort

1541 participants from the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Cohort (SMSC) provide data on sex differences in disease presentation and progression. The dataset, created by Timea-Chiara Annovazzi, contains cross-sectional clinical and demographic information collected between June 2012 and February 2022. It includes metrics like BMI, age at first symptoms, and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores.

Use Cases

• Analyze the association between sex and EDSS scores, adjusting for covariates like age, disease duration, and BMI.
• Compare age at first symptoms and BMI distributions between men and women across relapsing and progressive MS types.
• Investigate sex-based differences in disease distribution within a cohort where women represent 65.8% of participants.
• Model trends in disability levels at study entry using clinical factors like recent relapse and treatment category.

Strengths

• Data from 1541 clinically characterized patients in a national cohort.
• Includes multivariate analysis results with specific beta coefficients and p-values (e.g., β = −0.13 for female sex in relapsing MS).
• Clear temporal coverage from June 2012 to February 2022.

Limitations

• Small dataset size at 24.8 KB, indicating it is a summary table, not the raw patient-level data.
• Cross-sectional design limits analysis of disease trajectories over time.
• Geographic scope is limited to Switzerland, which may affect generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Cohort (SMSC).

Collection Method

Cross-sectional analysis of cohort data at study entry.

Time Range

June 2012 to February 2022.

Freshness

Data covers up to February 2022; metadata was last updated in April 2026.

Geography

Switzerland.