We also compared patient-derived MSRS composite scores with physician-derived clinical scales; while the correlations were weaker, these remained highly significant (p<0.001): EDSS (r s = 0.609), T25FW (r s = 0.497), and AI (r s = 0.591).
Here, using a large sample size and prospectively collected data, we report consistent results suggesting that there is no evidence for increased BMI having a strong effect on disability in MS: we noted a very modest correlation between BMI and MSRS in the cross-sectional analysis (rho = 0.17, n = 1336) and only a nominally significant association in the analysis of the longitudinal MSRS data (estimate (95% CI) = 0.0133 (−0.00013, 0.0267)), suggesting that there is no clinically meaningful role for BMI in disability for MS in most individuals.