Background: It is unknown how individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) age compared to unaffected peers.
Objectives: The objective of the study is to describe the impact of MS on health and functioning in aging women.
Methods: We used 10-item Physical Functioning Scale (PF10) scores (from the Short Form-36 (SF-36)) and other indicators of general, physical, mental health, and memory collected repeatedly over 25 years with self-administered questionnaires among participants in the Nurses' Health Study (n = 121,700 recruited at ages 30-55) and Nurses' Health Study II (n = 116,429 recruited at ages 25-42) to compare women with MS (n = 733) to unaffected peers in their health and disability, and describe/quantify the burden of aging with MS.
Results: Women with MS had a consistently lower PF10 by 0.9-1.7 standard deviations with greater overall variability than unaffected women. PF10-scores gradually decreased with increasing age in both groups, but MS cases declined 3-4 times faster in midlife, while decline was similar in old age. The physical function score of 45-year-old women with MS was comparable to that of 75-year-old unaffected women; 70-year-old women with MS scored similarly to 85-year-old unaffected women. MS cases also reported worse health/more disability throughout adulthood on the other indicators.
Conclusion: The age-related decline in physical health is accelerated by 15-30 years in MS patients compared to unaffected peers.
Keywords: Multiple sclerosis; aging; cohort study; disability; frailty; physical functioning.