Study type

Study topic

Disease /health condition
Human medicinal product

Study type

Non-interventional study

Scope of the study

Assessment of risk minimisation measure implementation or effectiveness

Data collection methods

Secondary data collection
Non-interventional study

Non-interventional study design

Cohort
Study drug and medical condition

Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) code

(L03AB07) interferon beta-1a
(L03AB08) interferon beta-1b
(L03AB13) peginterferon beta-1a

Medical condition to be studied

Multiple sclerosis
Population studied

Short description of the study population

The target study population consists of Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian women with MS who have been pregnant during the study period. The study population will be identified according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria below.

Inclusion criteria
• Women who have had a pregnancy with a recorded outcome consisting of an induced abortion, spontaneous abortion, ectopic pregnancy, or birth during the study period in FIN, SWE or NOR with the event being documented in the relevant databases.

Exclusion criteria
• None

Age groups

Preterm newborn infants (0 – 27 days)
Term newborn infants (0 – 27 days)
Infants and toddlers (28 days – 23 months)
Adolescents (12 to < 18 years)
Adults (18 to < 46 years)
Adults (46 to < 65 years)

Special population of interest

Pregnant women

Estimated number of subjects

1671
Study design details

Main study objective

The main objectives are to estimate and compare the prevalence of adverse pregnancy outcomes between women with MS exposed to IFN-β only vs. unexposed to any MSDMDs and women with MS exposed to IFN-β only vs. unexposed to IFN-β regardless of exposure to other MSDMDs.

Outcomes

The primary outcome variable is a serious adverse pregnancy outcome defined as a composite endpoint including elective termination of pregnancy due to foetal anomaly (TOPFA), major congenital anomaly (MCA), and stillbirth. Other outcome variables include live births, stillbirths, elective TOPFA or elective termination due to other reasons, MCA, spontaneous abortions, ectopic pregnancies and defect cases. The following perinatal health outcomes are also included: mode of delivery, preterm birth, birth weight and height, sex of the newborn, head circumference and Apgar scores.

Data analysis plan

The characteristics of all pregnancies with respect to relevant covariates are described with number of events, mean, median, standard deviation, minimum, maximum and inter-quartile range for continuous variables and with number and percentage for categorical variables. The descriptive statistics (the number of events and prevalence) will be presented for each pregnancy outcome. Descriptive analyses of the pregnancy outcomes will be further stratified by e.g. maternal age at LMP, chronic diseases, exposure to any teratogenic medication, duration of MS treatment and gestational age. The prevalence of the pregnancy outcomes will be compared between the study cohorts using log-binomial regression with adjustments for relevant confounders. The RR estimates with 95% confidence intervals and associated p-values will be reported for these comparisons and for confounders used in the model. In indirect comparison between cohort 6 vs. cohort 3, standardized prevalence ratio will be used.
Documents
Study results
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English (2.83 MB - PDF)View document
Study report
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Study, other information
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