Occupational outcomes of people with multiple sclerosis during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Background

People with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS) are vulnerable to unfavorable occupational outcomes and the COVID-19 pandemic brought major consequences on people's professional lives. In this view, we decided to investigate the occupational outcomes of PwMS during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We performed a systematic review with meta-analysis searching key terms in four databases. We initially included any peer-reviewed original article that enrolled adult patients with the diagnosis of MS and assessed any occupational variable during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no time limits and no language restrictions. The primary outcomes were the prevalence of unemployment, retirement and employment status change among people with MS during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other outcomes included the modality and characteristics of work: type of work, full-time work, part-time work and remote work. We also searched for data from studies that addressed any change in the work status due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Results

We identified 49 eligible articles comprising a total sample size of 17,364 individuals with MS. The pooled prevalence of unemployment and retirement was 0.47 (95% CI = 0.42-0.53). The pooled prevalence of PwMS who were unemployed or retired was positively associated with the progressive phenotype of the disease (

Conclusion

Our seminal review may serve as an example of how patients with neurological diseases or disabilities in general may have their jobs impacted in a pandemic and foster the context of global socio-economic crisis.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2023 Vitturi, Rahmani, Montecucco, Dini and Durando.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationship that could be constructed as a potential conflict of interest.