The Relationship Between Perceived Social Support and Spiritual Well-Being in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis.

Aim: This study aimed to determine the relationship between spiritual well-being and perceived social support (PSS) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Design: This was a cross-sectional study.

Patient contribution: This study was conducted on 120 patients with MS in Isfahan in 2021. The participants were over 18 years of age and referred to the MS Clinic.

Methods: The subjects were selected using convenience sampling. Data were collected using Cheraghi and Davari Dolatabadi's Perceived Social Support and Paloutzian and Ellison's Spiritual Well-Being (SWB) questionnaires and analysed using descriptive (number and percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential (Pearson's test, linear regression) statistics in SPSS software.

Results: Pearson correlation test indicated that there was a direct relationship between spiritual well-being and the total score of perceived social support (r = 0.415, p < 0.001) and the emotional (r = 0.328, p = 0.004) and informational (r = 0.311, p = 0.006) dimensions; this relationship was not significant in the instrumental dimension (r = 0.197, p = 0.081). Moreover, linear logistic regression analysis showed that in MS patients, the chance of spiritual well-being among MS patients will be increased by 59.2% per unit increase in emotional support. Also, the chance of spiritual well-being increases by 34.1% for each score increase in the age of MS patients.

Conclusions: It is necessary that age and perceived emotional support, as a strong predictor of spiritual health status, are considered in designing health promotion interventions for patients with MS.