The influence of self-care agency on quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the self-care agency's (SCA) influence on the quality of life (QoL) in patients with multiple sclerosis. Materials and methods: The descriptive corellational study was conducted with 120 patients (84 females, 36 males; mean age: 40.1±11.6 years; range, 19 to 73 years) with multiple sclerosis between September 2017 and May 2018. The data were collected from the SCA scale and the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 (MSQoL-54) scale. Multivariate variance analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between the MSQoL-54 scale and the SCA scale and the influence of SCA on QoL. Results: The mean score of the SCA scale was 93.37±25.47. In the evaluation of the MSQoL-54 scores, the patients received 53.92±10.78 points from the compound physical health subscale and 62.52±17.93 points from the compound mental health subscale. It was determined that SCA could explain the QoL related to physical health by 92% and mental health by 95%. Conclusion: Since SCA affects components of QoL, SCA is key in ensuring or increasing the QoL and well-being. Furthermore, disability status comes to the foreground as another variable that influences all the fields of QoL. Therefore, care interventions should be undertaken to adapt the patients to treatment and functional capacity to prevent labor loss and decrease dependency.