A multicenter, prospective, quasi-experimental evaluation study of a patient education program to foster multiple sclerosis self-management competencies

Objective: To determine the impact of the self-management training program "S.MS" for new multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Method: Multicenter, prospective, quasi-experimental study with 31 MS patients in the intervention group (training program) and 33 participants in the control group (CG) (brochures). Data were collected before, after and 6 months after the interventions. Analysis of change was done by ANCOVA with repeated measurements. Results: At baseline, participants in CG were younger at the time of diagnosis, suffered more frequently from relapsing remitting MS and took more MS-medication on a permanent basis. The intervention had a stable significant effect on each dimension of self-management ability, on total self-management ability (ES = 0.194, p < 0.001), on anxiety (ES = 0.193, p = 0.001), and on disease-specific quality of life (ES = 0.120, p = 0.007). Regarding depression, a significant interaction effect of time and intervention could be observed (ES = 0.106, p = 0.011). No effect was found on disease-specific knowledge. High participant acceptance was reported. Conclusion: "S.MS" participation was associated with a significant and sustained improvement of self-management abilities, anxiety and disease-specific quality of life in a quasi-experimental study design. Using RCT or CRT-designs would be desirable to further improve the evidence of treatment effectiveness. Practice implications: This study provides substantial evidence that "S.MS" fosters patients' self-management ability. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.