BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological chronic disease that causes a number of physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms. The identification of these factors will allow mitigating unemployment and improve quality of life of patients. The Buffalo Vocational Monitoring Survey (BVMS) is a tool to characterize Work-Challenged patients. OBJECTIVE: To describe and analyze BVMS data in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) from Argentina. To study the association with physical, cognitive and psychiatric morbidity in employed patients, comparing the performance of MS Work-Challenged and MS Work-Stable patients, with and without accommodations. METHODS: 119 MS patients were administered the Argentina adaptation of the BVMS, and completed measures of physical disability, fatigue, depression, cognitive processing speed, memory and verbal fluency. RESULTS: 57.14%of the patients were employed and 19.32%were unemployed, the remaining having roles of housewife, students and disability retirees. Within the employed subgroup, 60.26 %were working as employees and 39.74 %were self-employed. Cognitive and clinical variables differentiate patients with and without negative events and accommodations (p >  0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This Spanish version BVMS is considered a new tool to monitor employment difficulties in Spanish-speaking MS patients. MS Work-Challenged had a higher depression, fatigue and worse performance in cognitive variables.

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Background Social support is crucial for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). We sought to analyze differences in perceived social support in persons with MS vs controls; to study associations between perceived social support, clinical measures, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) variables in persons with MS; and to establish a predictive value of perceived social support for HRQOL. Methods We studied 151 persons with MS (mean ± SD: age, 42.01 ± 9.97 years; educational level, 14.05 ± 3.26 years) and 89 controls (mean ± SD: age, 41.46 ± 12.25 years; educational level, 14.60 ± 2.44 years) using the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS), Expanded Disability Status Scale, Fatigue Severity Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, and Multiple Sclerosis International Quality of Life questionnaire. Parametric and nonparametric statistical methods were used accordingly; P < .05. Results Persons with MS exhibited lower scores on the MOS-SSS’s overall support index (t238 = −1.98, P = .04) and on each functional subscale (t238 = −2.56 to −2.19, P < .05). No significant differences were found on the social support structural component (P > .05). Significant associations were observed between social support and depression and fatigue (r = −0.20 to −0.29, P < .05) and with MusiQoL dimensions (r = −0.18 to 0.48, P < .05). Multiple regression analysis showed all 4 tested models contributed to HRQOL-explained variance (41%–47%). The emotional/informational support model explained the most HRQOL variability (47%). Conclusions Persons with MS perceived reduced social support, presenting lower functional scores than controls. Perceived social support proved to be a predictor of HRQOL. These findings should be considered during therapeutic treatment.

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