Contributions
Abstract: 65
Type: Oral
Background: Little is known about the impact of parental multiple sclerosis (MS) on children"s educational attainment.
Objective: To examine educational achievements among children of parents with MS compared with children of parents without MS in a nationwide register-based cohort study.
Methods: Children of all Danish residents with onset of MS from 1950 to 1986 were identified by linking The Danish MS Registry with other population-based registers on family identification. The reference cohort consisted of randomly drawn individuals from the Civil Registration System without parental MS, matched 8:1 to the MS offspring by sex and year of birth. Only one randomly selected child from each sibship was included. Deceased, twins or persons not born in Denmark were excluded. Information about education was linked to the dataset from nationwide educational registries.
Results: We included 4,177 children of MS parents and 33,416 reference persons. Children of MS parents achieved statistically significant higher average grades than the reference cohort in their final exam of basic school with a mean grade difference of 0.46 (95% CI 0.22-0.69; p=0.0002). We found no difference in achievement of educational level above basic school (odds ratio [OR] 1.04; 95% CI 0.98-1.10; p=0.20). There was a trend towards more MS offspring attaining health-related educations (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.00-1.21; p=0.06).
Conclusion: Children of MS parents achieved higher average grades in basic school and more often tended towards health-related educations than the reference cohort. Hence, the educational attainments do not appear hampered by having a parent with MS.
Disclosure: J.Y. Moberg has served on a scientific advisory board for Biogen and has received support for congress participation from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Biogen.
M. Magyari has served on scientific advisory boards for Biogen and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and has received honoraria for lecturing from Biogen, Merck, Novartis and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. She has received support for congress participation from Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Genzyme.
N. Koch-Henriksen has received honoraria for lecturing and participation in advisory councils, travel expenses for attending congresses and meetings and financial support for monitoring the Danish MS Treatment Register from Bayer-Schering, Merck, Biogen, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis.
L.C. Thygesen has received honoraria for lecturing from AstraZeneca.
B. Laursen has nothing to disclose.
P. Soelberg Sorensen has served on scientific advisory boards for Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Genzyme, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, GlaxoSmithKline, MedDay Pharmaceuticals and Forward Pharma; has been on steering committees or independent data monitoring boards in clinical trials sponsored by Merck, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and GlaxoSmithKline; and has received speaker honoraria from Biogen, Merck, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Genzyme and Novartis. He has received unrestricted research support from RoFAR and Roche.
Abstract: 65
Type: Oral
Background: Little is known about the impact of parental multiple sclerosis (MS) on children"s educational attainment.
Objective: To examine educational achievements among children of parents with MS compared with children of parents without MS in a nationwide register-based cohort study.
Methods: Children of all Danish residents with onset of MS from 1950 to 1986 were identified by linking The Danish MS Registry with other population-based registers on family identification. The reference cohort consisted of randomly drawn individuals from the Civil Registration System without parental MS, matched 8:1 to the MS offspring by sex and year of birth. Only one randomly selected child from each sibship was included. Deceased, twins or persons not born in Denmark were excluded. Information about education was linked to the dataset from nationwide educational registries.
Results: We included 4,177 children of MS parents and 33,416 reference persons. Children of MS parents achieved statistically significant higher average grades than the reference cohort in their final exam of basic school with a mean grade difference of 0.46 (95% CI 0.22-0.69; p=0.0002). We found no difference in achievement of educational level above basic school (odds ratio [OR] 1.04; 95% CI 0.98-1.10; p=0.20). There was a trend towards more MS offspring attaining health-related educations (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.00-1.21; p=0.06).
Conclusion: Children of MS parents achieved higher average grades in basic school and more often tended towards health-related educations than the reference cohort. Hence, the educational attainments do not appear hampered by having a parent with MS.
Disclosure: J.Y. Moberg has served on a scientific advisory board for Biogen and has received support for congress participation from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Biogen.
M. Magyari has served on scientific advisory boards for Biogen and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and has received honoraria for lecturing from Biogen, Merck, Novartis and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. She has received support for congress participation from Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Genzyme.
N. Koch-Henriksen has received honoraria for lecturing and participation in advisory councils, travel expenses for attending congresses and meetings and financial support for monitoring the Danish MS Treatment Register from Bayer-Schering, Merck, Biogen, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis.
L.C. Thygesen has received honoraria for lecturing from AstraZeneca.
B. Laursen has nothing to disclose.
P. Soelberg Sorensen has served on scientific advisory boards for Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Genzyme, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, GlaxoSmithKline, MedDay Pharmaceuticals and Forward Pharma; has been on steering committees or independent data monitoring boards in clinical trials sponsored by Merck, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and GlaxoSmithKline; and has received speaker honoraria from Biogen, Merck, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Genzyme and Novartis. He has received unrestricted research support from RoFAR and Roche.