Relationship Between Spiritual Well-Being and Self-Management Among Iranian People With Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Background: Self-management is the cornerstone for controlling multiple sclerosis. As one’s sense of meaning in life and his/her relationship with a higher power, spiritual well-being is an important coping resource in some chronic diseases. However, little is known about the role of spiritual well-being in self-management of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Objectives: This study was aimed to assess the relationship between spiritual well-being and self-management among Iranian people with multiple sclerosis. Patients and Methods: Two hundred ninety-one people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis belonging to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Mashhad, Iran, participated in this cross-sectional analytical study conducted in 2014. Demographic information was collected by using a demographic form. The multiple sclerosis self-management scale-revised (2011), developed by Bishop and Frain, was used to evaluate self-management of multiple sclerosis symptoms. Spiritual well-being of participants was assessed by using the spiritual well-being questionnaire developed by Paloutzian and Ellison in 1983. Descriptive statistic and inferential statistical methods including Pearson and Spearman’s coefficient, stepwise multiple regression, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, one-way ANOVA, and Kruskal-Wallis test were employed by using SPSS, version 16.0. The significance level was set at P ≤ 0.05. Results: Overall, the participants reported moderate levels of self-management and spiritual well-being as recorded on the multiple sclerosis self-management scale-revised and the spiritual well-being questionnaire. There was a significant correlation between the participants’ spiritual well-being and self-management scores (r = 0.59, P < 0.001). Furthermore, participants’ self-management was significantly correlated with existential health (r = 0.52, P < 0.001) and religious health (r = 0.57, P < 0.001). Finally, 40% of the variance of self-management was explained by three factors: spiritual well-being, marital status, and job type (R2 = 0.4, F (3, 286) = 65.82, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Designing strategies to improve the spiritual well-being of people with multiple sclerosis can result in improved self-management of the disease. In designing such programs, special attention should be paid to the patients’ demographic characteristics such as employment type and marital status.