Table 2 Categories and sub-categories extracted from the analysis of patients' experiences
From: Barriers to quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis: a qualitative study
Category | Sub-category | Repetitive Codes |
|---|---|---|
Intrapersonal problems | Physical problems | Sensory-motor problems, vision problems, speech and swallowing problems, cognitive disorders, bladder dysfunction, extreme fatigue, unstable body temperature, balance and gait disorders, impotence and sexual dysfunction, … |
Psychological disorders | Depression, stress, anxiety, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, loneliness, stressful thinking habits, emotional fatigue, … | |
Turbulent future | Falling hopeless, worries about the future of the children, worries about saving life, worries about marriage and childbearing, … | |
Functional limitations | Limitations in physical/ social and cognitive functions, physical dependence on others, … | |
Job loss and pennilessness | Financial problems, leaving the job, forced to change job, losing job, disability and homelessness, … | |
Environmental barriers | Disease and treatment process | Disease progression, late diagnosis, rejection and incompatibility with disease, non-adherence to treatment, concealment of the disease by the patient, drug and therapeutic side effects, incompatibility with treatment, high cost of treatment, neglect of patients' rights by therapists, lack of easy access to medicine, lack of appropriate and sufficient empathy on the part of medical staff, … |
Fatigue of caregivers | Sense of helplessness, inability and despair in the caregiver, … | |
Information deficiency about MS | Lack of knowledge or little knowledge of patients with MS and society about MS, the weakness of the media in portraying the disease, … | |
Family tensions | Broken and unpleasant marital relationships, illness in the family, addiction of a family member, death of a loved one, divorce, conflicts within and between families, … | |
Lack of social support | Compassionate attitudes, unwarranted sympathies, social misconceptions about MS, unwarranted jealousy, inappropriate family support for the patient, insufficient support of family and friends, … | |
Fun and entertainment | Deprivation of presence in some places, … |