Challenges in the Daily Living Activities of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Qualitative Content Analysis

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic nervous system disease with a wide range ofsymptoms that affect the self-care ability of patients in daily activities of life; the patients afflictedwith this disease face with many challenges. This study was conducted to explore the activities of dailyliving (ADL) challenges of these patients.Methods: In this conventional content analysis study, fourteen MS patients who were selectedpurposively from Iran MS Society in Jahrom (Iran) participated in 2018. Data were gathered usingsemi-structured and in-depth interviews. A total of 14 interviews were conducted. These data wereanalyzed using MAXQDA 10 Software and the Graneheim and Lundman method.Results: Analysis of data led to extraction of the main theme “fear of ambiguous future of diseases”as the most important daily living challenge in MS patients. This challenges were categorized in fourmain categories: 1) confrontation to physical, emotional, psychological and behavioral changes, 2) fearof becoming crippled, 3) tolerance of financial burden of the disease, and 4) confrontation to culturalsocial wrong beliefs.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that people with MS face a number of ADL challenges.Fear of an ambiguous future leads to problems in ADL of patients. Therefore, considering the ADLchallenges, health care personnel especially nurses, family members and social organizations canimprove ADL and compromise patients with the disease as much as possible by providing conditionsfor application of the self-care activities and their implementation by patients.

Keywords

• Activities of daily living
• Iran
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Qualitative research