Influence of a Complex Rehabilitation Process on Quality of Life in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have a lower quality of life (QoL) than the general population. Rehabilitation is an essential part of the comprehensive treatment of MS patients. The aim was to determine the influence of complex physical therapy on the QoL of MS patients and the association of functional status with certain domains of health-related QoL. We followed 58 MS patients. The complex kinesitherapy used the Bobath concept and occupational therapy with the use of robot-assisted rehabilitation for the upper extremities. Before the start of rehabilitation and at the end, functional status was assessed by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and Berg Balance Scale (BBS). QoL was assessed through the standardized SF36 test and summarized into two scores: physical health component score and mental health component score. The average age of patients was 49.38 years. There was a significant improvement in all patients after the therapy, both in functional status and in QoL. There were no significant correlations between the EDSS and BBS with QoL parameters (individual SF36 categories and two summary scores). Duration of the disease correlated with the EDSS and BBS, but not with QoL. The age of patients did not correlate with functional status or with QoL. Physical therapy improves both functional status and QoL, but improvements do not correlate. There is a need to incorporate QoL assessment into assessments of disease severity, progression, and treatment success to obtain the most relevant results in creating the right treatment strategy.