The Effect of Hippotherapy on Quality of Life in Women with Multiple Sclerosis

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of hippotherapy on quality of life in women with multiple sclerosis.

This study is a semi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test and a control group. Among patients with multiple sclerosis, 24 patients from a clinical center in Isfahan were recruited through convenient sampling and randomly and put in the experimental and control groups. In the pre-test step, participants filled out Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 Questionnaire. Then, the experimental group practiced hippotherapy training for 8 weeks (3 days in a week for 30 minutes). After completing the intervention, subjects in both groups participated in the post-test.

A significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in physical and mental health dimensions of quality of life was observed.

Our data indicate that hippotherapy training has a positive effect on the quality of life of women with multiple sclerosis.