- The Health Economic Impact of Multiple Sclerosis in Australia report found there were 33,335 Australians living with MS in 2021.
- MS Australia-supported researchers delved further into the prevalence of MS by using data from the Australian Multiple Sclerosis Longitudinal Study (AMSLS), Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to calculate the number of Australians living with MS in each state and territory.
- The number of Australians living with MS continues to increase over time, both nationally and in most states and territories. The estimated prevalence of MS is higher in the southern states compared to northern regions.
- This has implications for the resources needed to treat and manage MS today and into the future.
How many people are there in Australia living with MS?
The Health Economic Impact of Multiple Sclerosis in Australia in 2021 report found that there were 33,335 Australians living with MS in 2021, up from 25,607 in 2017 and 21,238 in 2010. The increase from 2017 to 2021 was 7,728, a significantly larger rise than the 4,324 increase between 2010 and 2017. While we know that the number of people living with MS is increasing rapidly across Australia, what does it look like in each of the states and territories?
What did the researchers do?
In a study supported by MS Australia and led by Dr Julie Campbell, Dr Steve Simpson-Yap and Professors Andrew Palmer, Bruce Taylor and Ingrid van der Mei from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research and The University of Melbourne, researchers examined the prevalence of MS (the number of people living with MS per 100,000 Australians) across each state and territory in 2021. They did this by obtaining data from the:
- Australian Multiple Sclerosis Longitudinal Study (AMSLS)
- Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for the number of prescriptions of DMTs that were filled by people with MS in 2021.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on the population size, age distribution and demographics across different states and territories.
What did the researchers find?
Published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal, the researchers first calculated that there were 136.1 people living with MS per 100,000 Australians in 2021. In 2017, there were 103.7 people living with MS per 100,000 Australians. This is a significant increase.
Figure 1: Prevalence estimates of MS in Australian states and territories in 2010, 2017 and 2021.
Figure 1 shows how many people are living with MS in each state and territory per 100,000 Australians in 2010, 2017 and 2021.
The prevalence of MS is increasing in most states and territories, and in many states and territories, at an accelerated rate. The most startling increase is in Tasmania, where there has been a very large increase between 2017 and 2021.
We can also see the effect of the latitude gradient, where there is a higher prevalence of MS in people living further away from the equator. This is thought to relate to sunlight exposure and vitamin D levels, which are lower among people living at higher latitudes.
Consistent across the prevalence studies, MS is most prevalent in Tasmania, the southern-most state, and lowest in Queensland and the Northern Territory. The markedly low prevalence of MS in the Northern Territory may be partly due to its higher Indigenous population, among whom MS is relatively uncommon, in addition to the latitude gradient effect. Studies have demonstrated that prevalence of MS is highest in people of northern European ancestry.
While we are living longer and MS awareness is improving, these don’t completely explain the increasing prevalence. As explained in the Health Economic Impact Report, many behavioural and lifestyle risk factors can contribute to a person’s risk of developing MS, including adolescent obesity and insufficient sunlight exposure.
The changes in these different lifestyle and behavioural factors may be contributing to the growing risk of MS and researchers are continuing to investigate their roles in MS.
The increase in the prevalence of MS in Australia aligns with other local studies (including Hobart, Newcastle and Townsville) and worldwide trends. Globally, the rising prevalence of MS has been attributed to a combination of factors, including increased rates of diagnoses, earlier diagnoses, improved confirmation of MS diagnoses, and that people, including those with MS, are living longer.
Drs Campbell and Simpson-Yap said that, “We expect that this accelerating increase in prevalence will continue and this has resourcing implications into the future, particularly in those states where prevalence is accelerating at an even faster rate.”
Professors Taylor and van der Mei noted that, “We will continue to investigate this phenomenon of increasing prevalence of MS in Australia, with the calculation of new prevalence estimates for 2024 to be included in the next Health Economic Impact report in partnership with MS Australia.”
Why is this important?
The rising number of people living with MS has implications for the quantity of resources needed to treat and manage MS, today and into the future. Resources include cost, availability and accessibility of treatments and care such as disease modifying therapies (DMTs) and MS specialist nurses.
The continuing rise in the number of people living with MS supports the need to invest in research for treatments, in training for MS health professionals and in the affordability of treatments and services. Additionally, it emphasises the importance of supporting research aimed at preventing MS.
