The effect of family support on illness perception in multiple sclerosis patients

Objective: In our study, we aimed to investigate the effect of family support on illness perception in Multiple Sclerosis patients Materials and Methods: A total of 133 patients admitted to the neurology outpatient clinic of Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa-Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine Hospital were included in our study. Patients participating in the study were first asked to sign an informed consent form. Patients who agreed to sign were included in the study. After that, a demographic questionnaire, in which age, gender, educational status, marital status, occupation, type of MS, duration of MS, family history of MS and frequency of attacks were questioned , the perceived Family Support scale and the illness perception questionnaire were applied . All questionnaires were applied face to face, each questionnaire lasted 15-20 minutes and the study lasted 3 months. Comparisons between two independent groups without normal distribution were made with the Mann-Whitney U test. The Kruskal Wallis test was used to compare more than two independent groups without normal distribution. Results: It has been found that illness identity is significantly higher in women (p=0,021), those without a family history of multiple sclerosis (p=0,023), patients with progressive multiple sclerosis (p=0,045) and patients who had more than 1 attack in the first year(p=0,019). It has been found that the illness coherence was significantly higher in those who had more than 1 attack in the first year (p=0,016). It has been found that there is a significant relationship between the perception of treatment control and the duration of multiple sclerosis (p=0,035). The immunity subdimension was significantly higher in women(0,026). It was found that the illness identity was significantly related to risk factors(p=0.032) and immune dimensions (p<0.001). A positively correlated significant relationship was found between acute chronic duration perception and cyclic duration perception(p=0.004). It was found that the cyclical duration perception was significantly related to psychological attributions (p<0.001) and emotional representations (p<0,001). It was found that the consequences perception was significantly related to acute chronic duration perception(p=0.02), cyclical duration perception (p<0.001), emotional representations perception (p<0.001) and psychological attributions (p<0.001). A significant relationship was found between emotional representations and acute chronic duration perception (p=0.032). A significant (p<0.001) relationship was found between the perception of personal control and psychological attributions. A significant relationship with a negative correlation was found between perceived family support and psychological attributions (p=0.006). Conclusion: As perceived family support decreases in multiple sclerosis patients, the likelihood of psychological attributions being considered as a cause of illness for multiple sclerosis increases. Perceived family support should be evaluated in patients with high psychological attributions. Conducting studies with a higher sample number on this topic will be useful from the point of view of the literature. Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis , Family Support , İllness Perception