Educational, Psycho Mental and Socio economical needs of an Iranian Cohort with Multiple Sclerosis

Multi-dimentional problems of MS patients require emergent and scientific approach to be followed. This present study was carried out in 2009 to ascertain educational needs of MS patients in relation to their psycho mental and socio economic status.

174 patients referred to Iran's MS Society were included in this study. Samples were chosen using a simple randomized method from patients that fulfill the inclusion criteria. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire covered 4 main areas: 1) demographic data, 2) patient tendency for education, 3) patient's need for training about the nature of the disease and 4) educational need in 2 aspects of psycho mental and socio economical.

The age of the study group ranged between 32-39 years. 71.3% of the patients were female and 59.8% were married. 27.7% of the patients had an MS history of less than 3 years. The results showed that 39.1% of the patients needed a high level of education. 0.6% of the patients expressed their need to get more information about the nature of MS. While 54.62% required education to decrease their depression and 61.5% needed education for anxiety control. 61.5% of patients required education about drugs procuring and 58% needed education for their professional difficulties. Further analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship between the need for training in the psycho mental category and education level (p=0.0035), as well as the acceptance of the disease by the patients (p>0.001). Educational needs of patients within socio economic groups showed no significant correlation with other factors which were investigated in this study.

The findings revealed some specific characteristics which necessitate the need for more training for patients experiencing psycho mental problems than patients experiencing socioeconomic problems. This indicates that additional attention is to be followed for delivering education for patients having psycho mental complications.