The Relationship Between Body Image and Selfesteem Among Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Multiple sclerosisis a progressive degenerative disease which often occurs at early stages of life and causes variation in body esteem and self-esteem among ms patients. accordingly, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between body esteem and self-esteem among patients with multiple sclerosis. this study contained 395 patients suffering from multiple sclerosis in, who were gradually selected by convenience sampling method. data were collected through taleporos body esteem questionnaire and rosenberg self-esteem questionnaire. data were analyzed using independent t-test, anova, pearson's correlation coefficient, spearman's correlation coefficient, chisquare coefficient, and post hoc scheffe test. the results showed that most patients had moderate self-esteem and only a small percentage (16.2%) had high self-esteem. according to the score for body esteem (3.25) and overall mean score of body esteem (42.25), patients with ms had favorable level of body esteem. spearman's correlation coefficient demonstrated a significantly direct, linear relationship between body esteem and self-esteem. since coping occurs more rapidly in chronic diseases including multiple sclerosis in the presence of factors such appositive body esteem and increased self-esteem, this is the responsibility of nurses to increase patients' coping by identifying the related factors and thus be effective in improving their self-efficacy and self-care.