Perception of multiple sclerosis impact and treatment efficacy beliefs: mediating effect of patient's illness and self-appraisals.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between perception of multiple sclerosis (MS) impact and treatment efficacy beliefs in patients with MS and the extent to which self and illness appraisals can be regarded as mediator variables in this relationship.

METHOD: The cross-sectional study included 278 MS patients who completed the Treatment Beliefs Scale, Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale, Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the participants were collected with a self-report survey.

RESULTS: Illness perception and general self-efficacy mediated the relationship between perception of MS impact and treatment efficacy beliefs under the control of age and time from diagnosis. The standardized indirect effects for illness perception and general self-efficacy were -0.131 95% CI [-0.2029, -0.0739] and -0.086 95% CI [-0.1663, -0.0165] respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that worse perception of physical condition in patients with MS is associated with more negative treatment efficacy beliefs, and that this association is mediated by self-efficacy and illness perception. To inhibit the increase of negative treatment efficacy beliefs health care specialists can work on improving self-efficacy and illness appraisal.