Race and ethnicity add unique challenges to living with this disease.
@HealthCentral takes a closer look.
Written by Erin Boyle ———— February 2023
Controversial question: Is chronic disease ever distinguishable by race? Answer: Sometimes, but likely not in the way you think. Until recently, multiple sclerosis (MS) was considered a disease that mainly happened to white people. It was thought to be rare in people of color, thanks in part to “problematic evidence” dating back to a single 1950s study of Korean War veterans that claimed MS was more common in white men than Black men.
But recent research has found that Black and white adults are affected by this chronic condition at very similar rates in the U.S.—and health inequities in medical research have worked against communities of color not only in finding accurate prevalence rates, but also in what we know about how this chronic condition impacts Black, Latinx, and other people of color.
One recent review found that of 60,000 scientific articles published about MS, only 113 focused on Black patients, while 23 looked specifically at Latinx patients. That’s less than 1% of the total literature published on MS that looks at the disease in people of color. And of those studies focused on racial and ethnic patient populations, most were published within the last decade.
So what have those recent studies found? For starters, risk of the disease is different: African Americans have a 47% increased risk of multiple sclerosis compared to white Americans. Meanwhile, Hispanic Americans have a 50% lower risk and Asian Americans an 80% lower risk of MS. Additionally, Black people with MS have the highest mortality rate among people 55 years old and younger.
But the main differences in how MS impacts Black and brown patients when compared to white patients appears to be disease outcomes and symptom severity, points out Mitzi Joi Williams, M.D., a board-certified neurologist specializing in MS and founder of Joi Life Wellness in Atlanta, GA. “We see progression much quicker in the Black population,” says Dr. Williams. “There are some studies that suggest that progression can occur twice as fast in Black or African Americans versus white people. We also know that progression can be faster in Hispanic people.”
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