Relations between self-esteem and applying coping mechanism and self-care program in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and incurable disease of central nervous system that leads to decrease self-esteem in such patients, and they should cope with disability of this chronic disease. The purpose of this study was to determine any relations between the level of self-esteem and applying coping mechanisms and self-care programs by multiple sclerosis patients (MS) in Tehran. This study has a semi-experimental design accomplished in an accessible method in Iranian MS Society (2002-3). 38 educated patients (between 15-50 years old) with signs of this disease were selected. The data were collected via personal questionnaires, problems list, Cooper and smith standard questionnaires for self-esteem, Jalowice standard coping scale and self-report checklists that before and after interventions were completed by the patients. Self-care program was taught and performed for one month period, then the data before and after interventions were analyzed by applied SPSS soft ware, descriptive statistics and paired t-test, Wilcoxon, Chi-square and independent T tests. The paired T-test showed significant difference between self-esteem of patients before and after education,(p=0/000). Data analysis showed that before and after intervention, patients with higher self-esteem used more problem-focused coping than the patients with lower self-esteem (P=0/001), and patients with lower self-esteem used more affective-focused coping (P=0/000). Also, patients with higher self-esteem applied more self-care program in order to solve their problems, (P=0/001). According to these findings, self-care education improves self-esteem in patients and self-esteem promotion in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients has a direct relation with an increase in applying problem-focused coping and self-care programs by them.