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Nursing home residents with multiple sclerosis and dementia compared to other multiple sclerosis residents

Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Mississippi State University, MS, USA, rjb161{at}msstate.edu

Raymond A Martin

Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

Linda Moore

College of Health and Human Services, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

Suojin Wang

Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX USA

Hyunsu Ju

Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX USA, Biostatistician, Sealy Center on Aging, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Boulevard-Galveston, Texas, USA

Cognitive impairment may be a significant symptom in multiple sclerosis (MS), affecting about one half of MS patients in study samples similar to the general MS population. An interesting question is what role dementia, of any aetiology, plays in the cognitive ability of people with MS. The objective of this research is to learn more about nursing home residents with MS and dementia, identifying how they differ from other residents with MS. We developed profiles of MS residents with dementia using the Minimum Data Set and compared these profiles to other residents with MS. Nursing home residents with MS and dementia are admitted to nursing facilities at an older age and seem less likely to have physical impairments but more mood and behaviour problems than other MS residents at admission. A cortical variant of MS may be more prevalent than previously suspected and may be a factor responsible leading to nursing home admission in this subgroup of patients. Further clinical analysis of this subgroup would be necessary to support this contention.

Key Words: dementia • MDS • multiple sclerosis • nursing facilities

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