Assessing Four Quality Indicators for Multiple Sclerosis Management Through Patient-Reported Data

Background: Although hundreds of quality indicators (QIs) have been developed for various chronic conditions, QIs specific to multiple sclerosis (MS) care have only recently been developed. We sought to examine the extent to which the self-reported care of individuals with MS meets four recently developed MS QIs related to treatment of depression, spasticity, and fatigue and timely initiation of disease-modifying agents (DMAs) for relapsing MS. Methods: Using the Sonya Slifka Study data, we examined the proportion of the MS population meeting four QIs (based on patient-reported data) in a sample of individuals with MS in 2007–2009. For the three diagnoses, meeting the QI was defined as receiving appropriate medication or seeing a provider for treatment of the diagnosis; for timely initiation, it was defined as receiving a DMA within 3 months of a relapsing MS diagnosis. We also examined differences in characteristics between respondents who met the QI versus those who did not. Results: Approximately two-t...