Demographic information from patients with ALS in Ireland and NI (age±SD)
| Variable | Ireland: general care (n=169) | Ireland: MDT (n=340) | p Value | Ireland: all cases (n=511) | NI (n=208) | p Value: RoI general vs NI | p Value: RoI MDT vs NI | p Value: all RoI vs NI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age at diagnosis | ||||||||
| All patients | 68.6±10.8 | 62.8±11.1 | <0.0001 | 64.7 years±11.3 | 65.9 years±11.6 | 0.0213 | 0.0020 | 0.2189 |
| Male | 66.3±12.0 | 61.8±10.7 | 0.0017 | 63.4 years±11.2 | 62.6 years±11.6 | 0.0268 | 0.5714 | 0.5436 |
| Female | 71.6±8.1 | 64.0±11.5 | <0.0001 | 66.4 years±11.1 | 69.3 years±10.5 | 0.1261 | 0.0002 | 0.0273 |
| Site of onset | ||||||||
| Limb | 50% (82) | 67% (222) | 63% (306) | 66.5% (135) | ||||
| Bulbar | 48% (78) | 32% (104) | 37% (182) | 33.5% (68) | ||||
| Both | 2% (3) | 1% (2) | <0.001* | 1% (5) | 0% (0) | 0.001* | 0.625* | 0.278* |
| Mean time of symptom onset to diagnosis | ||||||||
| All | 12.7 months | 13.4 months | 0.6113 | 13.3 months | 14.9 months | 0.1486 | 0.2136 | 0.164 |
| Male | 14.5 months | 13.2 months | 0.0440 | 13.7 months | 14.5 months | 0.9997 | 0.4594 | 0.667 |
| Female | 10.5 months | 13.6 months | 0.5403 | 12.7 months | 15.3 months | 0.0089 | 0.3159 | 0.081 |
*Fisher’s exact test.
ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; MDT, multidisciplinary team; NI, Northern Ireland; RoI, Republic of Ireland.