Mom's Story

• A survey of more than 1500 people with MS and other chronic diseases shows that resilience (the ability to solve problems and bounce back from difficult situations) is linked to satisfaction with social roles (such as work and family responsibilities) and quality of life, but not to physical function.
• Understanding factors that promote resilience may help people with MS to not only cope with unpredictable changes in health and abilities, but to thrive in spite of these changes.  Learn more about how the resilience factor can help you to thrive. Watch an education program on Resilience: Addressing the Challenges of MS.
• The team (Samuel Battalio, BS, and colleagues at the University of Washington) has published results in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (2016 Dec 16).

Background: Research on psychosocial issues forms a cornerstone of finding life-changing solutions for people with MS. MS can have a significant impact on a person’s emotions, not only because MS is unpredictable and challenging to live with, but because it affects parts of the brain that control mood. This study specifically looked at factors that can affect resilience (i.e., the ability tackle problems, find solutions and bounce back from difficult situations).

The Study: The team reviewed information on 1574 people with MS, muscular dystrophy, post poliomyelitis syndrome, and spinal cord injury, which was gathered from an ongoing survey that is tracking people in the United States who are aging with physical disabilities. Information was collected on resilience using a clinical scale, and on other factors (including physical function, satisfaction with social roles – meaning work and family responsibilities, and quality of life) using questionnaires that assess how people report their own health status.

The results suggest that people who reported significantly greater satisfaction with social roles and significantly greater quality of life had significantly higher resilience. This relationship was slightly different between men and women, in that men who expressed greater levels of satisfaction with social roles reported higher levels of resilience. Surprisingly, noted the authors, resilience was not significantly greater in people who reported better physical function.

The team (Samuel Battalio, BS, and colleagues at the University of Washington) has published results in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (2016 Dec 16).

Next Steps: The authors note that resilience is complex, and that further research could help uncover particular aspects of resilience that may be most beneficial to individuals.  Understanding factors that promote resilience may help people with MS to not only cope with unpredictable changes in health and abilities, but to thrive in spite of these changes.

There are behaviors that can help promote individuals’ resilience:

• Learn more about how the resilience factor can help you to thrive
• Watch an education program on Resilience: Addressing the Challenges of MS

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