Investigation of Health Promoting Lifestyle and Social Support and Their Correlation Among Iranian Women With Multiple Sclerosis

Objectives: Evidence suggests that health-promoting behaviors can help improve the functional abilities of the patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We examined the relation of health promoting lifestyle with social support among the women with MS. Materials and Methods: This correlational study was conducted in 2017 among 250 Iranian women with MS in Tabriz city. The sampling was purposive, and frequency of health-promoting behaviors was obtained from the Health Promoting Lifestyle-II and modified Social Support Questionnaires. The relationship between health promoting lifestyle and social support was determined by the Pearson correlation test. Results: The mean score of health promoting lifestyle was 2.40 (SD = 0.46) within the achievable range of 1 to 4. Women obtained the highest mean score on the sub-domain of interpersonal relationships (Mean = 2.63, SD = 0.54) and the lowest mean score on the sub-domain of physical activity (Mean = 1.81, SD = 0.60). The mean (SD) score of social support within the achievable range of 0 to 100 was 70.39 (SD = 25.60). A significant positive correlation was found between health promoting lifestyle and social support (r = 0.19, P = 0.003) and all its sub-domains (r = 0.19 to 0.42, P<0.05). Conclusions: Health promoting lifestyle is significantly associated with social support and it can be enhanced by social support among the women with MS along with other treatments.