An Observational Study Comparing Multiple Sclerosis International Quality of Life Questionnaire (MusiQoL) and Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 Instrument (MSQOL-54) in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (RMS) Patients on Long-term Rebif® Therapy

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, inflammatory, demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) and is one of the most common causes of neurological disability in young adults. The neuropathology of the disease is marked by accumulation of leukocytes in the CNS, oligodendrocyte loss, demyelination, axonal atrophy, and neuronal loss. Clinically it is characterized by multi-focal recurrent attacks of neurological symptoms and signs with variable recovery and eventually, the majority of subjects develop a progressive clinical course of MS. The exact cause of MS is unknown, although an autoimmune process has been implicated. Genetic susceptibility plays a role in disease initiation but unidentified environmental factors may also be involved. Three clinical forms of MS are recognized: primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS), secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) and RRMS. Primary progressive subjects are characterized by slow and steady accumulation of neurological deficits from onset without superimposed attacks. Subjects with RRMS have exacerbations or relapses with subsequent variable recovery (remission). Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis is characterized by the steady accumulation of significant and persistent neurological deficit with or without superimposed relapses. The concept of quality of life (QoL) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an individual's perception of his or her life within the cultural context and value system in which he or she lives, in respect to objectives, expectations, norms and worries. It is a very complex and broad concept, influenced at various levels by the subject's physical health state, psychological health state, level of independence, social relations and relationship with the overall surrounding environment. A critical element of HRQoL is that it reflects the subject's assessment of the impact of his/her illness, not the physician's perspective. Professional interest in the concept of QoL has increased over the course of the past years, particularly within the framework of health care programs for chronic diseases. Health related quality of life measures can be subdivided into generic and disease-specific measures. Generic measures are designed to assess subjects with diverse medical conditions and they may not capture all relevant aspects of a specific illness. However, disease-specific measures developed from generic HRQoL tools may not truly reflect perspectives from the subjects with specific diseases. The MusiQoL questionnaire is a subject focused questionnaire being developed by an independent scientific steering committee in conjunction with MS subjects, neurologists, and health economists since 2000. OBJECTIVES * To assess the usefulness of MusiQoL in clinical practice in comparison with the established disease specific QoL instrument MSQOL-54 * To evaluate the effectiveness of Rebif therapy with respect to HRQoL in a longitudinal study in subjects with RMS This is an observational, one arm, multicentric study. Quality of life data from the MusiQoL instrument and MSQOL-54 questionnaire, as well as physical health outcomes such EDSS, will be collected bi-annually in subjects with RMS.