Neurology Research International

Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 129417, 5 pages

http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/129417

Erratum

Erratum to “Methodology of an International Study of People with Multiple Sclerosis Recruited through Web 2.0 Platforms: Demographics, Lifestyle, and Disease Characteristics”

Emily J. Hadgkiss,¹ George A. Jelinek,1,2 Tracey J. Weiland,1,3 Naresh G. Pereira,⁴ Claudia H. Marck,¹ and Dania M. van der Meer¹

¹Emergency Practice Innovation Centre, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, VIC 3065, Australia

²Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia

³Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne (St Vincent’s Hospital), Melbourne, VIC 3065, Australia

⁴Faculty of Medicine, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, WA 6959, Australia

Received 7 June 2013; Accepted 18 July 2013

Copyright © 2013 Emily J. Hadgkiss et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The authors would like to make a number of corrections. During reidentification of data to allow a scheduled email to participants, a coding anomaly was detected, such that the identification and filtering out of duplicates had been incorrectly undertaken. This meant that some participants were incorrectly removed from the dataset prior to analysis while some duplicate entries had been included in analysis. Many minor changes to the results in the published paper have occurred as a result of this error. The authors apologise for any inconvenience caused.

In the abstract, on the sixth line, the figure 2519 should be changed to 2469.

Figure 1 and Tables 3–10 were updated as provided.

Table 3: Characteristics of the study sample.

Characteristics
Number (%)

(unless otherwise stated)

Gender

    Male
407/2303 (17.7)

    Female
1896/2303 (82.3)

Age in 2012 (years)

    18–29
128/2398 (5.3)

    30–39
619/2398 (25.8)

    40–49
779/2398 (32.5)

    50–59
634/2398 (26.4)

    60–69
222/2398 (9.3)

    >70
16/2398 (0.7)

Country of location

    USA
807/2469 (32.7)

    Australia
629/2469 (25.5)

    UK
417/2469 (16.9)

    NZ
210/2469 (8.5)

    Canada
105/2469 (4.3)

    Other*
301/2469 (12.2)

Country of birth

    USA
772/2461 (31.4)

    Australia
508/2461 (20.6)

    UK
492/2461 (20.0)

    NZ
172/2461 (7.0)

    Canada
106/2461 (4.3)

    Other†
411/2461 (16.7)

Marital status

    Married
1472/2431 (60.6)

    Single
359/2431 (14.8)

    Cohabitating/partnered
316/2431 (13.0)

    Separated/divorced
257/2431 (10.6)

    Widowed
27/2431 (1.1)

Family status

    No children
766/2431 (31.5)

    One or more biological children
1599/2431 (65.8)

    One or more stepchildren
236/2431 (9.7)

    Number of children, median (IQR)
2 (0–2)

Employment status

    Employed full time
800/2459 (32.5)

    Employed part time
524/2459 (21.3)

    Stay at home parent/carer
184/2459 (7.5)

    Student full time
60/2459 (2.4)

    Unemployed‡
196/2459 (8.0)

    Retired due to age
72/2459 (2.9)

    Retired due to medical reasons or disability
570/2459 (23.2)

    Other
53/2459 (2.2)

Education status

    No formal schooling
3/2455 (0.1)

    Primary school
52/2455 (2.1)

    Secondary school
549/2455 (22.4)

    Vocational training
395/2455 (16.1)

    Bachelor’s degree
888/2455 (36.2)

    Postgraduate degree
568/2455 (23.1)

Including 52 other countries.

Including 72 other countries.

Including biological children and stepchildren.

Collapsed from the unemployed: seeking work/not seeking work.

Table 4: Diagnostic characteristics and level of disability.

Number (%)

Number of years since diagnosis

    <1–5
1098/2420 (45.4)

    6–10
568/2420 (23.5)

    11–15
383/2420 (15.8)

    16–20
182/2420 (7.5)

    21–25
96/2420 (4.0)

    26–30
47/2420 (1.9)

    >30
46/2420 (1.9)

Disability (PDDS)

    Normal
744/2300 (32.3)

    Mild disability
351/2300 (15.3)

    Moderate disability
172/2300 (7.5)

    Gait disability
365/2300 (15.9)

    Early cane
253/2300 (11.0)

    Late cane
175/2300 (7.6)

    Bilateral support
138/2300 (6.0)

    Wheelchair/scooter
99/2300 (4.3)

    Bedridden
3/2300 (0.1)

Currently experiencing symptoms due to a recent relapse∗

    Yes
639/2394 (26.7)

    No
1431/2394 (59.8)

    Unsure
324/2394 (13.5)

Definition of relapse provided to participants.

Table 5: Diagnosed subtype of MS.

Benign
Relapsing and remitting
Primary progressive
Secondary progressive
Progressive relapsing
Unsure/other

Type of MS first diagnosed, number (%)
99/2418 (4.1)
1864/2418 (77.1)
151/2418 (6.2)
43/2418 (1.8)
14/2418 (0.6)
247/2418 (10.2)

Type of MS currently diagnosed, number (%)
100/2421 (4.1)
1493/2421 (61.7)
175/2421 (7.2)
275/2421 (11.4)
48/2421 (2.0)
330/2421 (13.6)

Table 6: Relapse rate for relapsing-remitting participants.

Self-diagnosed relapse rate
Doctor-diagnosed relapse rate

n
Mean (95% CI)
Median (IQR)
n
Mean (95% CI)
Median (IQR)

Number of relapses over the last 12 months*
1469/1493
1.09 (1.01–1.17)
1 (0.0–2.0)
1452/1493
0.73 (0.67–0.78)
0 (0.0–1.0)

Number of relapses over the last 5 years, annualised*
1401/1493
0.98 (0.93–1.03)
0.67 (0.4–1.2)
1388/1493
0.66 (0.62–0.70)
0.5 (0.2–1.0)

Participants with relapsing-remitting MS.

Table 7: MSQOL summary scores.

Summary score
(missing)
Distribution (Kolmogorov)
Mean (95% CI)
Median (IQR)

Overall quality of life subscore
2259 (210)
0.00
66.9 (66.1–67.7)
68.4 (55.0–81.7)

Physical health composite
1937 (532)
0.00
59.2 (58.2–60.1)
59.1 (42.5–77.4)

Mental health composite
2210 (259)
0.00
66.7 (65.8–67.6)
72.1 (51.1–84.1)

Table 8: Depression and fatigue screening.

Cutoff
Positive, number (%, 95% CI)
Negative, number (%, 95% CI)

Depression screen (PHQ-2)
Negative < 3; positive ≥ 3
429/2225 (19.3, 17.7–21.0)
1796/2225 (80.7, 79.0–82.3)

Fatigue (FSS) mean score
Negative < 4; positive ≥ 4
1402/2138 (65.6, 63.5–67.6)
736/2138 (34.4, 32.4–36.5)

Table 9: Comparison of data with NARCOMS and MSBase registries.

HOLISM
NARCOMS
MSBase

Female (%)
82.3
74.9
71.5

Age at diagnosis (years)
37.0 (median)
36.9 (mean)
32.2 (mean)

Age at symptom onset (years)
31.0 (median)
32.4 (mean)
Data not provided

Age at enrolment (years)
45.0 (median)
42.8 (mean)
42.7 (mean)

Disease duration at enrolment (years)
6.0 (median)
Data not provided
10.4 (mean)

Table 10: Country of residence.

Country

Armenia
1

Australia
629

Austria
2

Belgium
5

Brazil
7

Bulgaria
1

Canada
105

China
1

Croatia
7

Cyprus
1

Czech Republic
2

Denmark
10

Estonia
2

Finland
4

France
11

Gibraltar
2

Guam
1

Germany
29

Greece
12

Iceland
2

India
3

Indonesia
1

Iran
1

Ireland
36

Israel
2

Italy
6

Kuwait
1

Lebanon
1

Luxembourg
1

Malta
2

Mexico
3

Namibia
1

The Netherlands
27

New Zealand
210

Norway
13

Philippines
2

Poland
3

Portugal
6

Puerto Rico
3

Qatar
1

Romania
4

Russian Federation
2

Saudi Arabia
2

Serbia
2

Singapore
2

Slovakia
4

Slovenia
2

South Africa
30

Spain
9

Sweden
16

Switzerland
8

Syria
1

Trinidad and Tobago
1

Turkey
1

United Arab Emirates
4

United Kingdom
417

United States
807

Figure 1: Participant study inclusion criteria.

There were also corrections to the Section  3 on page 5

– In the first paragraph,

(i)the first sentence beginning with “A total of 3053 participants” should now read: “Following the removal of duplicate records, a total of 2996 participants;”(ii)2519 should be changed to 2469;(iii)2518 should be changed to 2468;(iv)89% should be changed to 90.4%;

– In the second paragraph,

(i)82.2% should be changed to 82.3%;(ii)46 should be changed to 45;(iii)38 should be changed to 37;(iv)88% should be changed to 87.8%;(v)61.1% should be changed to 60.6%;(vi)23.4% should be changed to 23.2%;(vii)64.0% should be changed to 39.0%.

– In the third paragraph,

(i)13 should be changed to 12;(ii)45.0% should be changed to 45.4%;(iii)61.0% should be changed to 61.7%;(iv)76.7% should be changed to 77.1%.

– In the fourth paragraph,31.7% should be changed to 32.3%.

– In the fifth paragraph

(i)0.97 should be changed to 0.98;(ii)1382 should be changed to 1372;(iii)42.0% should be changed to 42.1%;(iv)31.0% should be changed to 30.8%;(v)27.0% should be changed to 27.2%.

– In the sixth paragraph,

(i)81.65 should be changed to 81.7;(ii)59.2 should be changed to 59.1;(iii)42.3 should be changed to 42.5;(iv)77.2 should be changed to 77.4;(v)72.0 should be changed to 72.1;(vi)51.2 should be changed to 51.1.

Corrections to the Section  3 on page 6

– In the first paragraph,

(i)65.7% should be changed to 65.6%;(ii)63.7 should be changed to 63.5;(iii)67.7 should be changed to 67.6.

– In the second paragraph,

(i)68.4% should be changed to 67.2%;(ii)51.4% should be changed to 50.1%.

Corrections to the Section  3 on page 7

– In the first paragraph,

(i)59.5% should be changed to 59.7%;(ii)38.0% should be changed to 37.8%;(iii)21.5% should be changed to 21.4%;(iv)67.0% should be changed to 66.8%;(v)82.3% should be changed to 82.4%;(vi)64.3% should be changed to 64.2%;(vii)676 should be changed to 675;(viii)30.0% should be changed to 30.1%.