ArticleNeurological research and practice2021
Multiple sclerosis is not associated with an increased risk for severe COVID-19: a nationwide retrospective cross-sectional study from Germany.
Article in Neurological research and practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- A narrative review on the safety of glatiramer acetate in multiple sclerosis: focus on Europe.Therapeutic advances in chronic disease · 2025Review
- Humoral immune response and safety of Sars-Cov-2 vaccine in people with multiple sclerosis.BMC immunology · 2024Article
- Insights from Real-World Practice: The Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Infections and Vaccinations in a Large German Multiple Sclerosis Cohort.Vaccines · 2024Article
- COVID-19 Vaccination and Disease Course in People with Multiple Sclerosis in Greece.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- COVID-19 and Health Outcomes in People with Multiple Sclerosis: A Population-Based Study in Italy.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prescription of multiple sclerosis medication in Germany.Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2023Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on physical and mental health status and care of adults with epilepsy in Germany.Neurological research and practice · 2022Article
- Multiple Sclerosis Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2022Review
- SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with neuroimmunological disorders in a tertiary referral centre from the north of Portugal.Multiple sclerosis and related disorders · 2022Article
- Preserved T-cell response in anti-CD20-treated multiple sclerosis patients following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.Therapeutic advances in neurological disorders · 2022Article
- Treatment Challenges in Multiple Sclerosis - A Continued Role for Glatiramer Acetate?Frontiers in neurology · 2022Review
- Symptoms after COVID-19 Infection in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis in Poland.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSince the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has risen, several risk factors have been identified, predicting a worse outcome. It has been speculated that patients with Multiple sclerosis (MS) have an increased risk for a severe course of COVID-19 due to a suspected higher vulnerability. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the impact of comorbid MS on the outcome of patients with COVID-19 in Germany.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study using the administrative database of all hospitalized patients diagnosed with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 (n = 157,524) in Germany during 2020. The cohort was stratified according to the presence (n = 551) or absence (n = 156,973) of comorbid MS, including discrimination of MS subtypes. Primary outcome measures were admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), use of invasive or non-invasive ventilation, and in-hospital mortality. Differences were investigated using rates and odds ratios as estimates. Pooled overall estimates, sex-stratified estimates, age-group stratified estimates, and MS subtype stratified estimates were calculated for all outcomes under the random-effects model.
resultsAmong 157,524 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, 551 had a concurrent MS diagnosis (0.3%). Overall, univariate analysis showed lower rates of ICU admission (17.1% versus 22.7%, p < 0.001), lower use of ventilation (9.8% versus 14.5%, p < 0.001) and lower in-hospital mortality (11.1% versus 19.3%, p < 0.001) among COVID-19 patients with comorbid MS. This finding was stable across the subgroup analysis of sex and MS subtype but was attenuated by age-stratification, confirming equal odds of in-hospital mortality between COVID-19 patients with and without MS (log OR: 0.09 [95% CI: - 0.40, 0.59]).
conclusionsAlthough there might be differences in risk within the MS patients' population, this large-scale nationwide analysis found no evidence for a worse outcome of COVID-19 in patients with comorbid MS compared to non-MS individuals.
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