Faculty Bibliography

Background: Patients with MS may experience both disability and unemployment. Understanding what specific symptoms are related to unemployment or employability from a patient perspective might allow interventions at the earliest possible time to maintain employability. Studies have identified many factors that may be related to changes in employment status, but none have focused on specifically which disease-related symptoms patients reported directly limit their ability to work. Objective: To obtain information from MS patients perspectives about specific symptoms that impair perceived ability to maintain employment. Methods: Retrospective review of cross-sectional data from MS patient reported symptoms that were obtained by means of self-reported information in the form of a validated standardized questionnaire. Results: 244 MS patients: 75% women, age 48 + 11 yrs, 40% employed, 60% unemployed. Most unemployed patients were on disability (40%). Employed patients experienced the fewest symptoms affecting work. Most patients already on disability experienced greatest difficulties in: multi-tasking (72%), tasks taking longer to complete (84%), and remembering tasks (64%). These same patients reported each symptom affecting work more frequently than those in any other employment category overall. Tasks taking longer to complete were reported to be the most job-limiting symptom overall (77%), especially in patients who were let go (71%), retired (78%), and volunteering (67%). Difficulty multi-tasking (61%) and difficulty remembering tasks (55%) were the next reported symptoms. The greatest symptoms in the disabled group were fatigue (85%) and physical difficulties (81%). Fatigue symptoms were experienced by the majority in all groups (86% overall), and was also reported as the symptom that most affected patients employability in all groups (73% overall). The average number of symptoms experienced for all groups did not vary between the employment groups. The average number of symptoms affecting wo!