ArticleMultiple sclerosis journal - experimental, translational and clinical
Subgroup analyses and patterns of multiple sclerosis health service utilisation: A cluster analysis.
Article in Multiple sclerosis journal - experimental, translational and clinical. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Clinical, demographic, and pharmacological predictors of medication adherence to disease-modifying therapies in multiple sclerosis: a multidimensional analysis of merged survey and claims data.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Cluster Analysis of Healthcare Utilization Patterns in Patients with Comorbid Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Atrial Fibrillation.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Previous investigations of multiple sclerosis (MS)-related healthcare have focused on utilisation of specific individual health services (e.g. hospital care, office-based neurologists) by people with MS (PwMS). Meanwhile, little is known about possible patterns of utilisation across health services and their potential differences across patient characteristics. Objective: To comprehensively analyse and identify patterns of MS-related health service utilisation and detect patient characteristics explaining such patterns. Methods: In 2021, we invited all PwMS insured by the largest insurance company in Lower Saxony, Germany, to take part in an online survey. We merged respondents' survey and health insurance claims data. We analysed MS-related health service utilisation and defined individual characteristics for subgroup analyses based on Andersen's Behavioural Model. We executed non-parametric missing value imputation and conducted hierarchical clustering to find patterns in health service utilisation. Results: Of 6928 PwMS, 1935 responded to our survey and 1803 were included in the cluster analysis. We identified four distinct health service utilisation clusters: (1) regular users (n = 1130), (2) assistive care users (n = 443), (3) low users (n = 195) and (4) special services users (n = 35). Clusters differ by patient characteristics (e.g. age, impairment). Conclusion: Our findings highlight the complexity of MS-related health service utilisation and provide relevant stakeholders with information allowing them to tailor healthcare planning according to utilisation patterns.
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