Coping strategies and quality of life in Mexican multiple sclerosis patients: Physical, psychological and social factors relationship

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the principal causes of non-traumatic neurological disability among young adults. The unpredictable and progressive evolution of multiple sclerosis is associated with a decline in physical and psychological health, affecting quality of life, which may be influenced by additional physical and psycho-social factors.

Objective: The present investigation aims to evaluate the quality of life (QoL), use of coping strategies and their relationship with other physical and psycho-social factors among 26 Mexican persons with MS.

Methods: Eight questionnaires were administrated for evaluation of the additional psycho-social and physical factors, including quality of life, coping strategies, social support system, family functionality, depression and anxiety prevalence.

Results: Results showed that the use of positive coping strategies (84.6% of our population) improve QoL perception (r = 0.396, p = 0.045) and the following domains: physical health (r = 0.514, p = 0.009), psychological health (r = 0.516, p = 0.008), social relationships (r = 0.654, p = 0.000) and environment (r = 0.600, p = 0.002). Negative correlations were observed between QoL and the presence of symptoms of both depression (r = -0.557, p = 0.003) and anxiety (r = -0.517, p = 0.007). A multiple linear regression model showed that QoL can be explained by physical and psycho-social factor in 54.6% of the cases that were evaluated.

Conclusion: The use of positive coping strategies in conjunction with a suitable psycho-social environment and good physical health result in a better perception of QoL in Mexican patients living with MS. Still, the negative factors are ineffectively diagnosed and hence generally under treated in medical MS monitoring. An interdisciplinary evaluation will provide the adequate tools to confront the diagnosis and the uncertainty of multiple sclerosis evolution, benefiting the QoL of Mexican patients with MS.

Keywords: Coping strategies; Multiple sclerosis; Quality of life.