Authors
Carlotta Gualco, Pasquale Paletta, Marco Salivetto, Paola Mosconi, Vito Lepore, Michela Ponzio
Published in
Recenti progressi in medicina. Volume 117. Issue 11. Pages 543-546.
Abstract
Healthcare service use among people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and a migration background (pwMSMB) in Italy remains poorly characterized.In the framework of IMPACT-MS project to compare sociodemographic, clinical, and healthcare-utilization profiles of pwMSMB by country-of-origin income level, using real-world data of MS register.
Retrospective analysis (2000-2025) of the Italian MS Registrer (RISM), including 3,404 adults with confirmed MS and available residence data. Countries of origin were classified as high-income or lower-middle-income (World Bank Atlas 2025). Mixed-effects logistic regression (random intercept for center) compared groups on sociodemographic, clinical, and healthcare-utilization variables.
56% of pwMSMB originated from high-income countries, 44% from lower-middle-income countries. Lower-middle-income origin was associated with younger age (OR=0.93, p=0.004), lower likelihood of Southern Italy/Islands residence (OR=0.33, p<0.001), higher disability at first access (OR=1.16, p<0.001), and modestly greater diagnostic delay (OR=1.00, p=0.038). No significant differences emerged in treatment exposure or service-use frequency.
Country-of-origin income was not associated with markedly different quantitative service access, but was linked to demographic, geographic, and clinical differences - particularly higher disability at intake - warranting further population-based research on unmet needs among pwMSMB. Key limitations include the lack of migration-status data, reliance on indirect proxies of service use that cannot capture socio-cultural barriers or care quality, register coverage limited to people already accessing MS centers, and the observational design, which precludes causal inference.
PMID:
42979880
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 04 Nov 2026.
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