Participant characteristics of people who provided qualitative free-text data regarding COVID-19 compared with people who did not provide qualitative free-text data regarding COVID-19
| Provided qualitative data | Did not provide qualitative data | |
| Total participants, N (% of total) | 509 (20.3) | 2004 (79.7) |
| Mean age, years (SD) | 58.2 (11.5) | 57.9 (11.6) |
| Sex (female), n (% of subgroup) | 436 (85.7) | 1557 (77.7) |
| Employment status, n (% of subgroup) | ||
| Employed | 161 (31.6) | 511 (25.5) |
| Unemployed | 250 (49.1) | 822 (41.0) |
| Unknown | 98 (19.3) | 671 (33.5) |
| MS phenotype, n (% of subgroup) | ||
| Progressive onset | 119 (23.4) | 455 (22.7) |
| Relapsing onset | 341 (67.0) | 1185 (59.1) |
| Unknown | 49 (9.6) | 364 (18.2) |
| Education, n (% of subgroup) | ||
| Secondary or less | 105 (20.6) | 491 (24.5) |
| Occupational certificate/diploma | 187 (36.7) | 589 (29.4) |
| Bachelor’s degree | 101 (19.8) | 408 (20.4) |
| Postgraduate degree | 114 (22.4) | 290 (14.5) |
| Unknown | 2 (0.4) | 226 (11.3) |
| Disability severity, n (% of subgroup) | ||
| Nil | 118 (23.2) | 434 (21.7) |
| Mild | 113 (22.2) | 455 (22.7) |
| Moderate | 183 (36.0) | 581 (29.0) |
| Severe | 87 (17.1) | 309 (15.4) |
| Unknown | 8 (1.6) | 225 (11.2) |
| SEIFA, n (% of subgroup) | ||
| Quartile 1 | 120 (23.6) | 522 (26.0) |
| Quartile 2 | 124 (24.4) | 511 (25.5) |
| Quartile 3 | 142 (27.9) | 497 (24.8) |
| Quartile 4 | 120 (23.6) | 465 (23.2) |
| Unknown | 3 (0.6) | 9 (0.4) |
| Exposed to lockdown, n (% of subgroup) | 144 (28.3) | 369 (18.4) |
MS, multiple sclerosis; SEIFA, Socio-economic indexes for areas.