Caspian Journal of Internal Medicine

en Impairment, disability and fatigue in multiple sclerosis Health Health Original Article Original Article Background: Identifying the predictors of pain is important for both health professionals and researchers, because pain has repeatedly been found to be a strong predictor of activity limitations and participation restrictions. The objective of this study was to determine the predictors of pain presence and severity in a large, well-designed sample of community dwelling individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. A center-stratified random sample including 188 persons with MS were recruited from three major MS clinics in the Greater Montreal, Canada. Main outcomes included pain prevalence and severity. Predictor variables included depression, anxiety, perceived health status, fatigue, sleep problems, and perceived cognitive deficits. Participants completed three questionnaires: the first asked about the socio-demographic and clinical information of the subjects, the second assessed the pain characteristics of the subjects, and the third covered the predictor variables. Results: The prevalence of pain in our sample was 42%. MS- related disability was found to be in the main predictor for both pain presence and intensity. Fatigue also was a main contributor to pain presence. The results of this study also showed that pain was associated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and perceived cognitive deficits, and diminished perceived health status. Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that pain is a common symptom among people with MS. Pain presence was predicted by MS-related disability and fatigue, while pain intensity was only predicted by MS severity. Multiple sclerosis, Pain severity, Pain presence, Fatigue, MS-related disability 244 251 http://caspjim.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-825-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Shahnaz Shahrbanian shahnaz.shahrbanian@mail.mcgill.ca 100319475328460013044 100319475328460013044 Yes School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada Pierre Duquette pierre.duquette@chum.qc.ca 100319475328460013045 100319475328460013045 No Notre-Dame Hospital (CHUM), University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada Nancy Mayo nancy.mayo@clinepi.mcgill.ca 100319475328460013046 100319475328460013046 No Division of Clinical Epidemiology, McGill University Health Center, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Canada