Employed multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with co-occurring motor, memory, and processing speed impairments were most likely to report a negative work event, classifying them as uniquely at risk for job loss, a recent study found. Researchers administered neuroperformance tests of ambulation, hand dexterity, processing speed, and memory to 272 employed MS patients and 209 healthy controls. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was utilized to elucidate common disability patterns by isolating patient subpopulations. They found:

• 4 profiles were identified via LPA: A common profile (55%) characterized by slightly below average performance in all domains, a broadly low-performing profile (18%), a poor motor abilities profile with average cognition (17%), and a generally high-functioning profile (9%).

• Multinomial regression analysis revealed that the uniformly low-performing profile demonstrated a higher likelihood of reported negative work results.

Citation: Frndak SE, Smerbeck AM, Irwin LN, et al. Latent profile analysis of regression-based norms demonstrates relationship of compounding MS symptom burden and negative work events. [Published online ahead of print June 21, 2016]. Clin Neuropsychol. doi:10.1080/13854046.2016.1200144.