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Updated: Oct 5, 2025

A Method of Trigonometric Modelling of Seasonal Variation Demonstrated with Multiple Sclerosis Relapse Data
Published on: December 9, 2015
Trends in administrative prevalence of multiple sclerosis and utilization patterns of disease modifying drugs in
Jakob Holstiege1, Manas K Akmatov1, Kerstin Klimke1
1Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care in the Federal Republic of Germany (Zi), Berlin, Germany.
Background:
This study aimed to describe recent developments of multiple sclerosis (MS) prevalence in Germany and to assess utilization patterns of disease-modifying drugs (DMDs).
Methods:
We used nationwide outpatient claims data of the statutory health insurance (SHI) from the years 2012 to 2019, covering 87% of the total German population. In annual cross-sectional analyses, MS prevalence was measured as the percentage of the SHI population affected by MS. Annual agent-specific prescription prevalence of DMDs was calculated by the number of patients receiving the DMD per 1.000 MS patients.
Results:
From 2012 to 2019, the prevalence of MS increased gradually from 0.27% to 0.34%. The overall DMD prescription prevalence in MS patients rose from 436 per 1,000 MS patients (2012) to 483 (2019). From 2012 to 2019 the prescription prevalence of interferon-beta 1a and interferon-beta 1b decreased sharply from 180.2 to 70.8 (-61%) and 80.2 to 34.1 (-57%), respectively. In contrast, the prescription prevalence of teriflunomide (2012: 8.5; 2019: 54.5) and fingolimod (2012: 28.5; 2019: 63.8) exhibited a pronounced increase by factors of 5.4 and 2.2, respectively.
Conclusion:
MS prevalence in Germany steadily increased in recent years. MS treatment patterns changed markedly indicating a shifting predominance of DMD injectable drugs to oral medications.
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