Apr 01, 2009
MS Researcher Seeking Survey Participants
Dr. Chung-Yi Chiu at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is seeking 200 survey participants from different chapters of the National MS Society to study health promotion intervention. This survey can be completed in about 30 min. The survey can be accessed at http://mshealthsurvey.blogspot.com. Participants will receive a $10 gift card.
Background
Diet, exercise, and stress management help reduce the risk of secondary physical and mental health problems, and improve quality of life of people with MS. However, fatigue, weakness, and lack of coordination can make it difficultly for people with MS to engage in physical activity. Additionally, inadequate intake of calcium, consumption of a high-fat diet, weight gain, and substance abuse are also reported as problems among people with MS, and lead to secondary health conditions.
Health promotion intervention is a promising strategy to improve the health status, employment, and quality of life of people with MS. It can, also lower medical costs and help to prevent secondary conditions. Although health promotion can be prescribed, organized, and delivered by healthcare professionals, the responsibility for maintaining a healthy lifestyle usually rests squarely on a person with MS, not on traditional medical care. Therefore, teaching persons with MS self-management skills will increase the probability that people with MS will continue to engage in health promotion activities throughout their lifespan.
However, little is known about the following questions:
1) What motivates people with MS to actively engage in health promotion activities?
2) What kinds of health self-efficacy skills people with MS need to initiate and maintain these activities on an ongoing basis? And
3) What are the relationships between health status and health-related quality of life, employment, life satisfaction and subjective happiness?
Ralf Schwarzer’s Health Action Process Approach (HAPA; Schwarzer, 1992) model of health promotion, a hybrid model integrating concepts from Bandura’s social-cognitive model of behavior change, Prochaska and DiClemente’s (1992) stages of change model, and Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior, has great potential to address the above questions.
The present study can contribute to our understanding of the structural relationships among HAPA constructs and how these constructs influence health promotion behaviors of people with MS. Further, my study can help professionals understand how to better design health promotion intervention for people with MS based on the HAPA approach.
To be eligible for this study, the participants must be: 1) people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, 2) age between 18 to 65, and 3) living in the community. An announcement about this project has been posted on the Researchers-Need-You webpage of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.nationalmssociety.org/research/researchers-need-you/index.aspx).
About MS and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information between brain and body and stops people from moving. With the help of people like you, the National MS Society addresses the challenges of each person whose life is affected by MS and helps them stay connected to the great big moving world. The North Florida Chapter was founded in 1973 and is dedicated to a world free of MS through funding research and programs for people with MS and their families.
For more information on MS or the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, contact us at 800-344-4867, msnorfla@fln.nmss.org or www.nationalmssociety.org/FLN.