Department of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52 AK, Leiden 2333 the Netherlands.
Department of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52 AK, Leiden 2333 the Netherlands.
Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2022 Feb;58:103423. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2021.103423. Epub 2021 Nov 23.
Spatial navigation has a crucial function in daily life activities, and is therefore strongly linked to quality of life, autonomy, and mobility. Navigation has been shown to be frequently impaired after forms of acquired brain injury, but the impact of MS on navigation ability has yet to be studied. A better understanding of potential navigation problems in this population could improve patient care. Therefore the aim of the current study was to measure objective and subjective navigation performance in people with MS.
Performance of a large sample of people with MS (N = 359) was compared to a group of matched controls. Additionally, the impact of ambulation and self-reported cognitive performance was studied within the MS sample. Participants filled out the Wayfinding Questionnaire, the patient-reported Expanded Disability Status Scale and the Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychological Screening Questionnaire for self-report measures. Objective navigation performance was measured with an online navigation test using a virtual environment.
Results indicate a lower subjective as well as objective performance in people with MS compared to healthy controls, and a substantial contribution of self-reported cognitive performance on navigation ability.
These findings indicate that spatial navigation can be a significant problem in people with MS, especially in people with MS with other cognitive impairments.
空间导航在日常生活活动中具有重要作用，因此与生活质量、自主性和流动性密切相关。已证明，在获得性脑损伤后，导航会经常受损，但 MS 对导航能力的影响尚未得到研究。更好地了解该人群中潜在的导航问题可以改善患者护理。因此，本研究的目的是测量 MS 患者的客观和主观导航性能。
将大量 MS 患者（N=359）的表现与一组匹配的对照组进行比较。此外，还研究了 MS 样本中步态和自我报告认知表现的影响。参与者填写了寻路问卷、患者报告的扩展残疾状况量表和多发性硬化症神经心理筛查问卷进行自我报告测量。使用虚拟环境的在线导航测试测量客观导航性能。
结果表明，与健康对照组相比，MS 患者的主观和客观表现均较低，自我报告的认知表现对导航能力有很大影响。
这些发现表明，空间导航可能是 MS 患者的一个重大问题，尤其是在伴有其他认知障碍的 MS 患者中。
