Multiple sclerosis

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Abstract
An epidemiologic survey of hospitalized patients of the metropolitan area of Washington was conducted in the years 1960-61 to determine the prevalence rate for multiple sclerosis in the city of Washington, D.C. Prevalence was first computed on the basis of the actual number of patients whose records were reviewed. This was estimated to be about 60% of the number of clinically identifiable cases in the community on prevalence day. A "correction factor" based on the 60[degree]/o figure was therefore applied, and the corrected prevalence rate was estimated as 27 per 100, 000 inhabitants or a rate which is intermediate in the surveys in Boston and New Orleans. Sex, race and age-specific rates, age of onset and average duration of the disease were estimated and the results discussed. Approximately 50[degree]/o of the deaths of persons in whom a clinical diagnosis of multiple sclerosis had been made were disclosed by a study of death certificates listing multiple sclerosis as the underlying (or primary) cause of death. The serious limitations of morbidity surveys restricted to the analysis of medical records alone and conducted in highly mobile populations such as that of Washington, D.C., were also discussed.

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