Scottish Multiple Sclerosis Register (SMSR)
Figures from January 2010 to December 2019

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides information from the Scottish Multiple Sclerosis Register (SMSR) on all patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) from January 2010 to December 2019 as confirmed by a neurologist.

The full report is available on the Scottish MS Register website (external website).

Main points

• In 2019, 535 new patients with a confirmed diagnosis of MS were added to the MS Register. This brings the total number of patients newly diagnosed and reported over the nine-year period to 4814.
• The annual incidence in 2019 shows that for every man there were over 1.9 women diagnosed with MS.
  In line with previous findings, the average annual incidence of MS in the six most northern NHS Boards was greater than the average for the eight southern NHS Boards.

• The proportion of newly diagnosed patients receiving contact with a MS specialist nurse within 10 working days of diagnosis, increased from 79.2% in 2018 to 83.9% in 2019.
• Once a referral was received by the MS specialist nurse, 99.1% of patients were contacted within 10 working days, an improvement from 98.2% last year.

Note: These figures exclude paediatric patients (8); patients that have refused contact with MS specialist nurse (33) and cases for which we hold a missing year of diagnosis (1) over the period 2010-2019.

Background

The Scottish MS Register is a national register within the Scottish National Audit Programme at Public Health Scotland. The aim of the Register is to improve healthcare for people living with MS in Scotland. Establishing the incidence and interpreting the implications of its demography allows us to facilitate service evaluation and drive health improvement. The data on which this report is produced are provided by neurologists and MS clinical teams via a standard electronic proforma which incorporates the patient journey from referral to diagnosis, including referral to a MS specialist nurse.

Further information

Further information and the full report can be found on the SMSR website (external website).

The next update for this publication will be July 2021.