Alertness-Grundmessung als stärkster Prädiktor für den Erwerbsstatus bei Patienten mit MS sechs Monate nach der Rehabilitation
Authors: Marchione S. , Dettmers C. , Weimer-Jaekel A. , Godde B. , Jöbges M. 
Published: September 2021

Baseline alertness as the strongest predictor of employment status in patients with MS 6 months after rehabilitationS. Marchione, C. Dettmers, A. Weimer-Jaekel, B. Godde, M. JoebgesAbstractIntroduction: Fatigue is a dominant impairment in multiple sclerosis, which often also limits the professional performance of patients with MS (PwMS). In clini-cal practice fatigue is often difficult to assess. The question of our study was whether the objective cognitive fatigability – measured as reaction time or tonic alertness – or the subjective self-assessment of the patient – recorded by the Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (FSMC) – predicts employment status 6 months after discharge from rehabilitation.Methods: PwMS whose rehabilitation measures were paid for by the government pension fund, and who had doubts about maintaining their professional per-formance in terms of their workload, underwent further testing. Tonic alertness from the test battery TAP-M was used as an indicator of cognitive fatigability. Participants were tested in the morning at 8:00 a.m., after standardized exer-cise at 11:00 a.m., and in the afternoon at 2:00 p.m. In addition, fatigue was determined using a self-assessment questionnaire (FSMC). Six months after discharge from neurological rehabilitation, their employment status was classi-fied through a telephone interview and also compared with our socio-medical performance assessment. Results: A complete data set was collected from 64 patients (43 female; age 48.9 ± 8.7 years; duration of illness 14.7 ± 9.5 years; EDSS 3.8 ± 1.3; 67 % relapsing remitting, 16 % secondary progressive, 17 % primary progressive). According to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) code, 86 % were “white collar” workers, for example, in service, office and non-manual jobs. Six months after discharge from the rehabilitation clinic, 15 (23 %) out of 64 PwMS reported working less than 3 hours per day, 35 (55 %) PwMS reported 3 to 6 hours, and the remaining 14 (22 %) PwMS were full-time employees. The mean total value of the FSMC questionnaire for cognition was 38.9 ± 7.4, which was equivalent to severe cognitive fatigue. Eleven of the 14 full-time employees had severe fatigue. The morning alert-ness measurement (alertness1) (β = -.985; p= .003) and, the decline in alert-ness from morning to noon (alertness difference21; β = -.590; p= .033) and from noon to afternoon (alertness difference32; β =-.709; p= .020) were sig-nificant predictors for employment status. A reduction in alertness (increase in reaction time) by 1 SD on the alertness scale increases the probability of not working full-time by a factor of 2.67. Likewise, the probability of not working full-time increases by a factor of 1.80 if fatigability is increased by 1 SD from morning to noon. If fatigability increases by 1 SD from noon to eve-ning, the probability of not working full-time increases by a factor of 2.03. Discussion: The FSMC has no prognostic value for employment status 6 months after discharge from rehabilitation. The morning alertness measurement has the highest predictive value. However, an above average decline in alertness over the course of the day also reduces the probability of working full-time. Keywords: fatigue, fatigability, MS, alertness, employment status, prognostic factor