Domestic accidents and multiple sclerosis: an exploratory study of occurrence and possible causes

Abstract Purpose: Domestic accidents are widespread, but no data are available on their occurrence in pathological populations such as patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Aim was to investigate domestic habits and occurrence of different types of domestic accidents and near falls in a sample of MS patients compared with healthy controls and to determine whether patients' domestic accidents are linked to any disease characteristics. Method: Descriptive survey of 50 patients and 50 healthy controls. Participants were administered an ad-hoc questionnaire to collect data on domestic habits and accidents they had in the past 2 months. Their physical and neuropsychological functioning, mood and fatigue were also assessed. Results: Results showed that patients spend most of their time at home with caregivers. No differences emerged for total number of domestic accident types, but there were differences in bumps and near falls. The latter seem to be linked to patients' walking ability and to bowel/bladder functioning and the former to reasoning ability and fatigue. Conclusions: This study provides the first data on the occurrence of domestic accidents and possible causes in MS patients. It encourages further studies on the topic, with the final goal of designing preventive and rehabilitation strategies. Implications of Rehabilitation Domestic accidents can cause further suffering, disability and decreased productivity and increased economic burden to MS patients. Our study evidenced that, within DA, bumps occur more frequently in MS patients compared to healthy controls. A highly significant difference was also found between the two groups for number of near falls. These results should help clinicians addressing patients to preventive and rehabilitation programs in order to avoid the occurrence of DA.