Introduction: The Knowledge Project (KP) is an initiative to collect self-reported patient data and objective clinician assessments electronically at each appointment. The long-term benefits of early treatment (ET) in multiple sclerosis (MS) are unclear but could be evaluated with the outcomes available in the KP data set.
Methods: The KP was queried for patients with relapsing-remitting MS or secondary progressive MS who were five or more years from symptom onset. Propensity scores for ET were calculated based on early clinical characteristics. Patients were divided into quintiles based on their propensity scores and linear regression models were constructed to determine the treatment effect sizes and confidence intervals.
Results: A total of 1,082 records were analyzed. Those in higher quintiles who received ET had significantly better predicted scores for most outcomes.
Discussion: The benefits of ET were modest but support its use in patients similar to those in the higher quintiles.