Asthma More Common In People With MS

Recently, we featured a Facebook post that mentioned the results of two major US studies, one of which looked at the links between multiple sclerosis and asthma.  This generated a huge reaction from our community and there were many requests for a more detailed summary of this research.  As always, we strive to provide you with information that is of the most interest to you and respond to your feedback….so without further ado, here is the requested article:

Research Summary: Prevalence of asthma in multiple sclerosis: A United States population-based study.

WHAT?

The study looked at whether people living with multiple sclerosis were more likely to have asthma than the general population.

WHO?

This research was conducted at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA.

HOW?

The study used a large US population database of medical health records and looked at the rates of asthma in 141,880 people living with multiple sclerosis and over 56 million people without MS.

WHEN AND WHERE?

This article was published online in December, 2018, in the journal “Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders”.  The abstract can be found here.

FACT #1:  People living with multiple sclerosis often experience additional chronic health conditions, such as depression, anxiety and other autoimmune disorders.

FACT #2:  Whether people living with multiple sclerosis are at greater risk of being diagnosed with asthma is unclear.  Previous studies have shown differing results (i.e. some of have shown greater rates of asthma in people with MS, whereas others have shown lower rates), highlighting the need to get a better understanding of this issue.

FINDING #1:  This study found that the rate of asthma in people living with multiple sclerosis was around 3 times higher than that of the general population.

FINDING #2:  Asthma occurs mostly in young (less than 30 years of age) and elderly (greater than 80 years of age) people living with multiple sclerosis, which is different to the general population where there isn’t much change across age ranges.

THOUGHT:  The fact that asthma is more common in people with multiple sclerosis makes sense, as they share many common risk factors (e.g. smoking, low vitamin D levels, obesity etc).

THOUGHT:  This study provides strong evidence that there are increased rates of asthma in people living with MS.  Further work should now be done to confirm these results and attempt to work out the reasons for this association.

THOUGHT:  The exact impact of asthma on the quality of life of people living with multiple sclerosis is unknown.  This finding suggests that it is another health condition that should be monitored and managed in many people living with MS to ensure it doesn’t negatively effect their day to day lives.