Objectives

Over the past 3 decades there have been significant advances in the development of pharmaceutical and rehabilitative treatments for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), such that life expectancy is continuing to increase. Whilst these advancements are exciting, there are also concerns and unknowns regarding what it is like to age with MS. The objectives of this research were to explore the lived experiences and meaning of aging in conjunction with having MS.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews with 40 persons with MS over 60 years were conducted. Thereafter data were subject to an existential phenomenological analysis.

Results

Four different ways were discussed with regards to embodied experiences of aging with MS: aging makes MS worse; MS makes aging worse; aging makes MS better; and MS makes aging better.

Discussion

This research highlighted the complexity of aging with MS and the various of ways persons over 60 with MS experience and interpret this phenomenon.

中文翻译：

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多发性硬化症衰老的经验和意义：一种存在主义的现象学方法。

目标

在过去的 3 年里，针对多发性硬化症 (MS) 患者的药物和康复治疗的开发取得了重大进展，因此预期寿命不断增加。虽然这些进步令人兴奋，但也存在关于 MS 变老是什么样子的担忧和未知数。本研究的目的是探索与 MS 相关的衰老的生活经历和意义。

方法

对 40 名 60 岁以上的 MS 患者进行了半结构化访谈。此后对数据进行存在主义现象学分析。

结果

关于 MS 衰老的具体体验，讨论了四种不同的方式：衰老使 MS 恶化；MS 使衰老变得更糟；衰老使 MS 变得更好；和 MS 使老化更好。

讨论

这项研究强调了 MS 衰老的复杂性，以及 60 岁以上的 MS 患者体验和解释这种现象的各种方式。