ABSTRACT
Introduction, objectives and aims: COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant disruption of clinical activities at Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Centers. As part of a national multicenter survey (COVId Ms Patients SATisfaction survey - COVIMPSAT) aimed at collecting patients' opinion regarding the quality of care and information received from MS Centers (MSC) during the pandemic, we report data about COVID-19 infections and vaccination cycle and how they were managed by the MSC. Material(s) and Method(s): In April-May 2021, 16 Italian MSC developed and sent a digital (35-item) survey by email to their patients. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS, version 25. Result(s): 1670 people with MS (pwMS;67.3% women) completed the survey. 169 (10.1%) reported a diagnosis of COVID-19 infection: 63% were symptomatic, while 37% were not. As regards treatment for COVID-19, only 3% of the patients were hospitalized. The impact of COVID-19 infection on MS-related neurological symptoms was as follow: 69.3% of pwMS stated that the severity of their MS-related symptoms remained stable, 21.5% reported a worsening of pre-existing symptoms, 7.4% affirmed that new neurological symptoms emerged, while only 1.8% reported an improvement of MS-related symptomatology. At the time of the survey, 60.6% of pwMS were inoculated at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination appointments were scheduled by: MSC staff alone (44.9%), MSC staff together with the general practitioner (17.5%), the general practitioner alone (16.1%), other Institutions (12.1%), and by the patients themselves (9.3%). At the moment of the survey 39.4% of pwMS were not vaccinated yet. The three major reasons for not being vaccinated yet were: being already on a vaccination list (40.8%), willing to be vaccinated but without an appointment (17.6%), still undecided or not willing to be vaccinated (19.3%). Conclusion(s): The results of this multicentre survey revealed a low hospitalization rate of pwMS, in line with previous studies (Moghadasi et al, 2021). In the majority of the sample, COVID-19 symptomatology did not have a significant impact on MS-related neurological symptoms. MSC promoted and facilitated vaccination procedures and scheduling, alone or in combination with the general practitioner, in more than half of pwMS.