Teleconference Fatigue Management for People With MS

Approximately 60% of individuals with multiple sclerosis describe fatigue as their most
disabling symptom. Energy conservation education involves teaching people with MS different
strategies to manage fatigue and reduce its impact on daily life. Despite growing evidence
of the effectiveness of face-to-face energy conservation education, not all people with MS
are able to access these programs. The purpose of this project is to test the effectiveness
and efficacy of a teleconference-delivered energy conservation education program for people
with MS. The primary goals of the project will be to reduce the impact of fatigue on
participants' everyday lives, reduce fatigue severity, and improve quality of life.
Secondary goals are to increase self-efficacy for managing fatigue and increase the number
of energy conservation strategies used. The study will employ a randomly allocated two group
time series design with a wait-list control group, which is one type of randomized control
trial. A total of 140 people with MS will be recruited through direct mailing and
advertising. The program will be delivered by telephone teleconference by a licensed
occupational therapist. Outcome measures will be administered over the telephone by a
research assistant before and after the program, at three months and at six months. We
hypothesize that: (1) individuals in the immediate intervention group achieve better
outcomes than individuals in the wait-list control group; (2) the program leads to
significant reductions in fatigue impact and fatigue severity, and improved quality of life;
and (3) improvements in the outcomes can be maintained over six months.