Nehme and Therese Tohme Multiple Sclerosis Center, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Lebanese University, Hadath, Lebanon.
Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2021 Jul;52:102963. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2021.102963. Epub 2021 Apr 20.
The epidemiology of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been studied in many countries of the Middle East but the prevalence and incidence of MS in Lebanon is still unknown.
To determine the incidence and prevalence of MS in Lebanon.
Lebanese patients diagnosed with MS between January 2018 and December 2018 were identified using the database of governmental third-party payers. The crude, age- and sex-specific 2018 prevalence and incidence among Lebanese patients were calculated.
2248 MS patients were identified of whom 67.1% were women (female: male ratio 2:1) with a mean age of 41.8 ± 12.96 years. The 2018 prevalence of MS was 62.91 cases per 100,000 persons (95% CI: 60.41 - 65.41). The overall incidence of MS in Lebanon was 8.36 cases per 100,000 (95% CI: 7.45 - 9.27) with a mean age at onset of 34.5 ± 12.5 years.
This is the first study to assess prevalence and incidence of MS in Lebanon, confirming that Lebanon is a moderate to high-risk area for MS. Those high rates are commensurate with recently published studies from the Middle East, pointing to a significant rise in incidence and prevalence of this disease in our region.
多发性硬化症（MS）的流行病学已在中东的许多国家进行了研究，但黎巴嫩的 MS 患病率和发病率仍不清楚。
确定黎巴嫩的 MS 发病率和患病率。
使用政府第三方付款人的数据库，确定 2018 年 1 月至 2018 年 12 月期间被诊断为 MS 的黎巴嫩患者。计算黎巴嫩患者的粗患病率和年龄及性别特定的 2018 年发病率。
共确定了 2248 例 MS 患者，其中 67.1%为女性（女性：男性比例为 2:1），平均年龄为 41.8 ± 12.96 岁。2018 年 MS 的患病率为 62.91 例/100000 人（95%CI：60.41-65.41）。黎巴嫩的 MS 总发病率为 8.36 例/100000 人（95%CI：7.45-9.27），发病年龄平均为 34.5 ± 12.5 岁。
这是第一项评估黎巴嫩 MS 患病率和发病率的研究，证实黎巴嫩是一个中高度风险地区。这些高比率与最近来自中东的研究结果一致，表明该地区 MS 的发病率和患病率显著上升。
