Loss of social independence in patients with neurofibromatosis type 2: a follow-up study using a national registry in Japan.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateIn Japan, “Intractable Rare Disease Health Care Act” was enforced on January 1, 2015. Ethical approval is required in institutions that researchers belong to when they apply for the provision of the data registered since 2015 from the MHLW. On the other hand, we have used the data registered from 2004 to 2013 in the present study. Therefore, ethical approval was not required for the present study in accordance with the Ethical Guidelines for Medical and Health Research Involving Human Subjects set forth by the Japanese government and the MHLW provided the database following approval of the research protocol. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Availability of data and materialsThe datasets analyzed in the current study are not publicly available because the national registry of NF2 was provided specifically for the present study by the MHLW. Competing interestThe authors declare that they have no competing interests. FundingThis work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Research on Policies for Intractable Rare Diseases from the MHLW of Japan (20FC1043). Authors’ contributionsHO, TY, and MS designed the study. HO, TY, and MS collected and analyzed the data. HO prepared the first draft of the manuscript. MS, HY, MF, and CN interpreted the data and critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. AcknowledgementsNot applicable. Competing interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

"Funding This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Research on Policies for Intractable Rare Diseases from the MHLW of Japan (20FC1043)."