Evaluation of the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and social support with adherence to treatment in patient with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a severe autoimmune illness that can be treated with a variety of medications. However, over a third of patients do not adhere to their treatment regimens. Drug compliance may be influenced by social support and demographic factors. This is a cross-sectional study that examines the association between Patient with MS socio-demographic characteristics and social support and their treatment adherence. We used the perceived social support scale and the treatment compliance scale to collect data on socio-demographic factors. We looked at the correlations between the scores on the three scales. We included 155 female, 45 male patients in our study. The mean age of the patients was 36.3±11.8 (±standard deviation). The rate of noncompliant patients was 15.5%. and 56.0% showed moderate-level compliance with their treatment. The mean multi-dimensional perceived social support score was 62.3±18.8. The only socio-demographic feature that impacts the social support and special person subscale scores was the marital status. We found that married patiens had significantly more social support and were significantly higher than divorced patient (p<0.05). This study found that PwMS compliance with their medicines is unaffected by socio-demographic characteristics or perceived social support. Larger patient groups with less perceived social support will need to be studied. On the other hand, this suggests that patient compliance is more influenced by personal factors such illness perception and beliefs than by social support.