RT - Journal Article T1 - The effect of peer group educational program on multiple sclerosis patients’ level of stress JF - HBI_Journals YR - 2012 JO - HBI_Journals VO - 15 IS - 6 UR - http://jams.arakmu.ac.ir/article-1-1497-en.html SP - 17 EP - 26 K1 - Educational program K1 - Multiple sclerosis K1 - Peer group K1 - Stress AB - Background: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic and degenerative disease of the central nervous systemthat due to such reasons as its chronic nature, no prognosis, and absence of a definitive treatment causes stress in patients. Thus, this study was designed to examine the impact of peer educational program on stress in patients with multiple sclerosis in 2011. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, 110 patients with multiple sclerosis were randomly allocated to test and control groups (each group including 55 patients). After preparing 5 multiple sclerosis patients as the peer group, six training sessions forthe test group were held by the peer group over two months. Data collection tool was DASS 21 questionnaire that assessed patients’ stress before and after 4 months which was completed by both groups. In order to analyze the results, SPSS software 16 was used. Results: The results showed that before intervention, there was not astatistically significant difference between the two groups in stress score(p=0.24) while a statistically significant difference was seen between the two groups after intervention (p=0.001). Also, stress score in test group was statistically significant (p=0.001) but there was not a statistically significant difference between the stress scores of the patients in the control groups (p=0.39). Conclusion: Peer group educational program caused stress reduction in patients with multiple sclerosis. Hence, it is recommended that peer groups be used for education of multiple sclerosis. LA eng UL http://jams.arakmu.ac.ir/article-1-1497-en.html M3 ER -