Economic costs incurred by the patients with multiple sclerosis at different levels of the disease: a cross-sectional study in Northwest Iran

Table 1 Demographic and background characteristics

Variable	Category	Frequency	Percentage
Age	Childhood and adolescence (under 20 years)	14	4.67
	Youth (20–35 years)	128	42.67
	Middle age (35–60 years)	156	52.00
	Elderly (over 60 years)	2	0.66
Gender	Male	96	32.00
Gender	Female	204	68.00
Mean age at first symptoms	Under 20 years	67	22.33
	20–29 years	122	40.67
	30–39 years	92	30.67
	40–50 years	19	6.33
Years of illness	1–5 years	96	32.00
	6–10 years	90	30.00
	11–15 years	53	17.67
	More than 15 years	61	20.33
Marriage status	Single	99	33.00
	Married	188	62.67
	Divorced and spouse died	13	4.33
Education	Illiterate	15	5.00
	Diploma and lower	157	52.33
	B.Sc.^a	103	34.33
	M.Sc.^b	20	6.67
	Ph.D.^c	5	1.67
Employment	Employed (public or private sector)	27	9.00
	Self employed	10	3.33
	Student	22	7.33
	Housewife	152	50.67
	Retired	11	3.67
	Unemployed	24	8.00
	Other	54	18.00
Basic medical insurance		300	100
Insurance type	Social Welfare (TamineEjtemaei)	193	64.34
	Health Services (Khadamatdarmani)	73	24.33
	Other (Armed Forces, Banks, etc.)	34	11.33
Supplementary medical insurance		105	35
Locality	Tabriz	254	84.37
Locality	Other cities	46	15.33

ISSN: 1471-2377