The Interrelations Between Disability and Quality of Life in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis in the Area of Bajo Aragon, Spain: A Geographically Based Survey

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most disabling diseases in young people, but the interrelation between disability and quality of life is poorly understood. As indi vidual correlations between disability and the perspective of the patient may be weak in individual subjects, the purpose of our work was to analyze and correlate quality of life with neurologic impairment and disability in all patients with MS from the geo graphic area of the Bajo Aragon in the northeastern region of Spain. A total of 36 patients with a diagnosis of probable or clinically definite MS had an average age was 38.1 years (range,17-66 years). The majority of them were women (66.6%) and had relapsing—remitting forms (83.3%). The Minimal Record of Disability measured neu rologic impairments, functional limitations, and handicaps. Quality of life was meas ured by the Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis (FAMS) scale. Statistical analysis was performed with the Kruskal—Wallis nonparametric test and Pearson's co efficient o...