By Milly Dawson – article written in 2017 Medically Reviewed by Samuel Mackenzie, MD, PhD
Research reveals that MS is much more common among African-Americans than previously thought
Sharon Froston models for MS Fashion Plates, an annual fundraising event in Boston.George Lucozzi, ASA Photography
Until recently, the medical community believed that multiple sclerosis (MS) was much less common among African-Americans than among Caucasian Americans. This misconception became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy: Believing that MS was uncommon in this group, clinicians would unintentionally misdiagnose African-Americans, which in turn led to inappropriate and ineffective treatment.
It’s not the first or only time that false beliefs about multiple sclerosis have held powerful sway, says Nicholas LaRocca, PhD, associate vice president for healthcare delivery and policy research at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS).
“In the 1920s, it was thought that MS was a vascular disease or that it was caused by some sort of psychological or emotional weakness,” Dr. LaRocca says.
But just as research has shown those ideas to be incorrect, large, well-run studies have shown that African-Americans definitely do develop MS, perhaps as frequently as or even more frequently than Caucasians.
A study published in May 2013 in the journal Neurology that used patient records from the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health plan, for example, found a higher incidence of MS among black patients than among white, Hispanic, or Asian patients.
Similarly, a study published in June 2012 in the journal Brain that was conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found that among U.S. military veterans, blacks had the highest incidence of MS, compared to whites and to people of other races in the study group.
Still, exactly how common MS is among African-Americans remains a matter of debate, in part because researchers have only just begun to investigate this question, and in part because the complex causes of MS mean that the incidence of disease is likely to vary from one study population to another.
