[Quality of life in multiple sclerosis: relation to the clinical parameters of the disease]

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic progressive disease with multiple neurological and psychological impairments. The object of this study was to investigate the relation between quality of life of MS patients and main clinical parameters of the disease.

The study included 100 patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis who were treated at the Department of Neurology, Clinical Center University in Sarajevo. Quality of life was evaluated by using MSQOL-54 questionnaire. Internal consistency of Bosnian MSQOL-54 version was evaluated. Associations between disability level (EDSS score), clinical type, disease duration, presence of pain and sphincteral problems and the MSQOL-54 physical and mental health composite scores were determined.

The MSQOL -54 questionnaire, translated to Bosnian, proved to be highly reliable (Cronbach alfa > 0.75 on all scales). All clinical determinants used in the sudy proved to be significantly related to the quality of life scores based on the Mann-Whitney test (p < 0.05). Method of linear regression analysis showed presence of pain and EDSS score as the most significant independent predictive factors of the physical health composite score (R2 = 0.827). The presence of pain and clinical type of disease, proved to be independent predictive factors of the mental health composite score with present, but less significant role of EDSS score (R2 = 0.598).

The presence of pain retained the most significant role in the prediction of both physical and mental composite scores, which proved the importance of pain management in treatment of MS patients. Disability level (EDSS score) showed minor importance in predicting mental health composite scores which proved deficiency of clinical scales and emphasize the importance of the quality of life measures as independent criteria in the evaluation of multiple sclerosis patients.