Predicting Perceived Stress Based on Quality of Life Components and Willpower Components

Background & Aims: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and neurological disease that causes various physical and mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, weakness, diplopia, blurred vision, decreased muscle strength, tremors, forgetfulness, lack of concentration, disorder of understanding feelings, etc. This disease is an inflammatory disease with a degenerative nature related to the central nervous system with a vast etiology. MS causes the myelin of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) to be destroyed, and the destruction of myelin determines the symptoms of the disease. This disease is common between the ages of 18 and 40. According to statistics, approximately 2.5 million people in the world have MS. The prevalence of this disease (MS), according to the statistics recorded by the World Health Organization, is 20 to 60 cases per 100,000 people, and statistics show that the ratio of women to men is higher. The clinical course of MS is diverse and can vary from a completely benign course to a progressive and debilitating course. Stress is a term that refers to a set of physical, mental, emotional, and tension factors in a person. Being exposed to stress in everyday life is an integral part of life, some of these stresses can have a positive effect on increasing arousal, and in this case, it prepares a person for activity. On the other hand, exposure to stress can be harmful. Stress occurs for a person when the environmental facilities are more than the person's resources for adaptation. Perceived stress is defined as the degree to which environmental situations in a person's life are evaluated as stressful. The studies conducted about perceived stress indicate that stress and its effect on mental health are determined to some extent by a person's subjective evaluation of life events. People suffering from chronic diseases, if they cannot control the perceived stress of the disease, will affect their mental health. Therefore, it is very important to control and manage stress so that the patient can deal with it efficiently. One of the unpleasant consequences of stress in chronic patients such as MS is the unfavorable quality of life of these patients, which shows that it is important to investigate and evaluate the quality of life in clinical research, that knowledge about the quality of life of patients will help the health team to Move the care to improve their quality of life. Every person's dream in life has always been to have a good life. In the present century, there have been many changes in people's views on life, and every person tries to live a quality life and strives to improve the quality of his life. For this reason, the evaluation of the quality of life has gained a lot of value in recent years. The concept of quality of life in the lives of healthy or sick people is affected by different conditions and changes. The concept of quality of life depends on physical, mental, and social health, which is influenced by people's opinions and expectations. Another variable that is theoretically related to the structure of perceived stress is willpower. Regarding the controlling factors of human behavior, behaviorist psychologists consider the controlling factor of a person to be the external environment of a person, and cognitive psychologists consider the internal system of a person, including his willpower and decision, to be effective in this field. They consider from the point of view of today's psychologists, the concept of willpower is synonymous with the relative strength of motivations, and in fact, they consider the study of self-control and motivation to be effective and useful in this field. In general, the problem of the present research is to what extent the components of quality of life and components of willpower can predict the perceived stress in patients with MS and the contribution of each of these variables. How much is it in predicting the perceived stress of patients with MS? Methods: The current research design is a descriptive design of the correlation type, in which the components of quality of life and the components of willpower are predictor variables and perceived stress is the criterion variable. The statistical population of this research was patients with MS from Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, and the sample of this research is 118 people, including 64 women, which is equivalent to 54.2 percent of the total sample size, and 54 men, which is equivalent to 45.8. The tools used in this research included Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale, the World Health Organization's Quality of Life Scale, and Godrezi's Willpower Scale. Data analysis was done using SPSS-23 software. To check the correlation of the dimensions of the variables, Pearson's correlation coefficient was analyzed using the simultaneous regression method. Results: The results showed that the components of physical health and mental health from the quality of life scale and the components of independence and courage from the willpower scale significantly predict perceived stress. The value of the standardized regression coefficient was -0.360 for physical health, -0.249 for mental health, and -0.333 for independence and courage. Conclusion: Physical health, mental health, independence, and courage can affect psychological well-being and increase the problems caused by stress by affecting the perceived stress of MS disease and his avoidance of MS stress. Therefore, it is necessary to consider these factors in the management and treatment of these patients. Multiple sclerosis patients struggle with stress due to facing and fighting this chronic disease. It is important and necessary that their perceived stress from the disease is not high enough to be able to cope with the disease. Since some subscales of quality of life and willpower are related to perceived stress, it is useful to pay attention to them in patients. The higher the level of quality of life and willpower, the less stress a person feels.