A Narrative Review on Biopsychosocial Predictors of Cognitive Impairment among Multiple Sclerosis Patients: Directions for Malaysia Studies

Authors

  • Chong Jia Wearn Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
  • Normah Che Din Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
  • Joyce Pauline Joseph Hospital Kuala Lumpur

Keywords:

predictors, cognitive impairment, multiple sclerosis, Malaysia

Abstract

A Narrative Review on Biopsychosocial Predictors of Cognitive Impairment among Multiple Sclerosis Patients: Directions for Malaysia Studies  Chong Jia Wearn1, Normah Che Din1, Joyce Pauline Joseph2 1 Health Psychology Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.2 Neurology Department, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, 50586 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. AbstractCognitive impairment is the most disabling symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Researchers have been studying factors that could predict cognitive impairment among MS patients hoping to alleviate its consequences and gather indicators of the disease progression. However, there were limited up-to-date articles that review the predictors of cognitive impairment among MS patients. In Malaysia, the topic about cognitive functioning in MS was absent. This review aims to identify and synthesize the research evidence concerning biopsychosocial variables on cognitive impairment among this population for future directions in Malaysia researches. A narrative review was performed by identifying research articles from year 2004 to 2019 through PubMed, EBSCOhost, Scopus and Google Scholar. Full-text articles meeting the selection criteria were included for qualitative synthesis. A total of 12 studies were included. Studies included in this paper found that age, course of disease and anxiety predicts cognitive functioning. Mixed results were found among variables such as gender, disability, fatigue, burden of lesion, depression and educational level. Stress was correlated with cognitive functioning but it was not a significant predictor. Although many factors were found to affect cognitive functioning among MS patients, evidence provided from this review indicates that their relationships might not be linear and direct. Keywords: predictors, cognitive impairment, multiple sclerosis, Malaysia  DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/JSKM-2021-1901-03

Author Biographies

Chong Jia Wearn, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Health Psychology ProgramMaster in Clinical Psychology Program

Normah Che Din, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Health Psychology ProgramSenior Lecturer

Joyce Pauline Joseph, Hospital Kuala Lumpur

Neurology DepartmentNeurology specialist

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Published

2021-01-26

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 (2021)

Section

International Symposium on Health Sciences 2019 (I-SIHAT 2019)

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