Evaluation of Educational Self-Care Needs of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: From the Perspective of Patients and Experts

Implementing a coherent multidisciplinary self-care program in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) based on their needs can improve their health status. This study was conducted to investigate the self-care education needs in patients with MS from the perspective of experts and patients.

The present study is a cross-sectional analytical study conducted in Neishabour in 2020. A total of 100 participants who were selected by non-probability sampling method participated in this study. Data were collected from two 22-item Likert-based researcher-made questionnaires. The validity of the content of the items was confirmed based on the Waltz and Basel index (CVI > 0.79) and the reliability of the instrument was retested with a correlation coefficient of 0.89. The questionnaires included two sections: demographics and education needs. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney and t-test).

With regards to the type and method of learning, 52 (86.7%) patients preferred to learn self-care educational materials electronically. According to experts, teaching effective physical exercises was most necessary, while from the patients' point of view, teaching complementary therapies and traditional medicine was most needed. The most important educational priority of patients was about how to overcome sexual problems, while according to experts, education on how to deal with intestinal and urinary disorders and management of weakness and fatigue caused by the disease had the highest priority.

The results showed the scope and content of self-care education in patients with M S differed from experts and patients point of view.