Research Information System
2nd International Internal Medicine Nursing Congress, İzmir, Turkey, 17 - 19 December 2020, vol.6, pp.102
Intraduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease. Patients
experience disability due to reasons such as motor, sensory, visual, cognitive, sexual dysfunction, decreased
muscle coordination, advanced fatigue and pain. They often experience hopelessness, especially for reasons such
as impaired body image caused by disability, inadequate social support, lack of timely needs, negative
experiences experienced, prolonged treatments, activity limitations, dependence on someone else's care.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between disability, hopelessness in patients
MS and investigate the effecting factors.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 96 MS patients registered in the Turkish MS
Asociation in İstanbul. The data were collected between 01 September 2019 - 30 December 2019 using the
Patient Information Form including sociodemographics, the Brief Disability Questionnaire (BDQ) and the Beck
Hopelessness Scale (BHS). Each interview lasted between 20 and 25 minutes. Written permissions were
obtained from the ethics committee of the university, from the center where the research was conducted, and
from the patients who voluntarily agreed to participate in the research. The SPSS version 22.0 (IBM) program
was used for statistical analysis. The normality distribution of the data was assessed by the KolmogorovSmirnov test. Parametric tests (ANOVA, Independent-Samples t test) were used because the data showed
normal distribution. Correlation analysis was conducted between BDQ and BHS.
Results: The mean age of the sample was 43.01±11.06, 68.8% were female, 46.9% were college graduates,
57.3% were married, 64.6% had children, and 59.4% were diagnosed with and have had MS for more than six
years. The mean score of BDQ was 9.64±6.67 and BHS score was 9.32±2.23. Moreover, a negative corelation
was detected (r =-0.28) between the score of BDQ and BHS in patients (p<0.01). İn our study, statistically
significant differences were found between mean score of BDQ with variables such as age, gender, education
status, had children, employment status, year of diagnosis, number of attacks, and the presence of other chronic
diseases (p <0.05). No statistically significant differences was found between the mean scores of the BUÖ with
other variables, except the working status.
Conclusion: Disability is an important problem for MS patients. While the disability in the MS patients is
increasing, hopelessness level increases, too. Some of personal characteristics of MS patients also affect
disability and hopelessness. We suggest that nurses who are responsible for the care of individuals with MS
should not ignore the disability and hopelessness problems of patients while planning care.
Key words: Multiple sclerosis, Disability, Hopelessness, Nursing