Exploring differences between subgroups of multiple sclerosis patients in health-related quality of life

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaires finding increasing us e in medicine, but still only few publications have reported on HRQoL in pa tients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Because of its progressive and disabli ng nature, the disease has a considerable effect on HRQoL. To facilitate th e interpretation of scores for the heterogeneous MS population, we explored differences between subgroups of MS out-patients (n = 90) on two HRQoL ins truments: the Medical Outcome Study Short Form-36 and the Disability and Im pact Profile. Three disease-related characteristics were studied: severity of MS, time since diagnosis, and MS progression in the past 6 months. The r esults show that each of these have an effect on one or more aspects of HRQ oL, Thus, the longer the disease duration and the more severe and progressi ve the MS, the lower is the patient's experienced HRQoL.