What Predicts Changes in the Work Situation of Recently Diagnosed People with Multiple Sclerosis and do these Predictors also Apply to Healthy People?
Shalina R D Saddal, Karin van der Hiele, Ehsan Motazedi and 9 others
PMID 40014261WHAT IT FOUND
In people with recently diagnosed multiple sclerosis, better information processing speed was linked to fewer work difficulties after one year.
Higher conscientiousness was linked to more working hours. These are associations, not proven treatments.
Key findings
01In people with multiple sclerosis, a 10% higher baseline information processing speed was associated with a 2.27 point lower work difficulties score after one year.
02Higher baseline conscientiousness was associated with more working hours after one year: 2.04 more hours per 10% higher conscientiousness in healthy people and 3.42 more hours in people with multiple sclerosis.
03In people with multiple sclerosis, considering job tasks mostly mentally burdensome was associated with 10.26 more working hours after one year than considering them also physically burdensome.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The models used complete-case data, so the number analysed was smaller than the combined sample of 287. The MS Work Difficulties Questionnaire was developed for people with MS, so healthy control scores may not capture the same work problems. Only relapsing remitting MS within 12 months of diagnosis was included, so the results do not cover progressive disease or longer disease duration. No physical disability measure such as EDSS was available, so physical functioning could not be fully assessed. The study combined two datasets with different coping questionnaires and limited overlapping variables. Fatigue, emotion-focused coping, and disease modifying therapy did not show significant associations, so absence of effect should not be read as proof they are unimportant. These are observational associations, not causal effects.
Declared interests
Funding came from ZonMw, TeVa pharmaceutical industries, Nationaal MS Fonds, Celgene, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving cognition, conscientiousness, or job type will increase working hours. This was an observational cohort, not a treatment trial. The study also found no significant associations for fatigue, emotion-focused coping, or disease modifying therapy.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →