The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital in The Relationship Between Self-Management and Nutrition Behavior in People with Multiple Sclerosis

The aim of this study was to investigate the direct and indirect effects of self-management on Nutrition Behavior (NB) with the mediating role of Psychological Capital (PC) in People with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS) in Gilan province.

We studied PwMS in Guilan MS Society (GMSS) in a cross-sectional design research in 2019. We invited 275 PwMS to participate in the study either through convenience sampling method. Data collection tool consisted of questions about demographic characteristics of participants, a revised form of Multiple Sclerosis Self-Management Scale (MSSM-R), Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ), and Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in SPSS 19.0 and Amos 18.0 statistical software.

The results showed that nutrition has a significant positive correlation with self-management (r = 0.342), self-efficacy (r = 0.211), optimism (r =0.208), hope (r = 0.316), resiliency (r = 0.237), and PC (r = 0.287) (P-value < 0.001). Additionally, the results showed that the direct and indirect effect of self-management on nutrition was significant and the proposed model had a good data fitting. The VAF index showed that 18% of the total effect of self-management on nutrition behavior is indirectly explained by the mediating variable of psychological capital.

Self- management and PC were associated with NB in PwMS. The results of this study support the importance of these factors in health-promoting behaviors with regard to NB and the proposed model can be a suitable option in health care and nursing provided that, the fit of this model is investigated in future research and other provinces.