Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects different parts of life such as married state, child bearing, education, employment and retirement. We interviewed 106 MS pateinets, 32 male and 74 female and analized married state, child number before and after diagnosis, level of education, employment, duration of employment and retirement.
We found out that 24 (75%) male are married and 8 (25%) are not married, 51 (68.9%) female are married, 9 (12.2%) ar not married, 9 (12.2%) are divorced and 5 (6.7%) are widows.
11 (34.4%) male have not children, 9 (28.1%) have 1 child, 8 (25.0%) have 2 children and 4 (12.5%) have more than 2 children. 14 (18.9%) female have not children, 18 (24.3%) have 1 child, 28 (37.8%) have 2 children and 14 (18.9%) have more than 2 children. 17 (80.9%) male and 50 (83.3%) female have children before the diagnosis is established.
21 (65.6%) male finished high school, 5 (15.6%) are college-trained and 6 (18.7%) are without education. 44 (59.4%) female finished secondary school, 6 (8.1%) are college-trained and 24 (32.4%) are without education.
8 (25.0%) male are still working, while 24 (75.0%) are retired. 30 (40.5%) female are still working, while 44 (59.5%) are retired. In the male group MS was the main cause of retirement, while in the female group in 32 (72.7%).
The results show that MS mainly affects child bearing in both group, meaning that only 19.1% male and 16.7% female have children after the disease onset. MS shortens working age and causes early retirement especially in male group.
