De Dios Pérez Blanca, Kendrick Denise, das Nair Roshan, Evangelou Nikos, Newsome Ian, Radford Kate
Centre for Rehabilitation and Ageing Research, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2025 Jun 27;20(6):e0325570. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0325570. eCollection 2025.
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) often leave the workforce prematurely due to MS symptoms and difficulties managing workplace relationships and performance. Vocational rehabilitation (VR) can improve job retention outcomes for people with MS, but there is a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions.
A multicentre, feasibility, parallel-group randomised controlled trial (RCT) comparing a job retention VR intervention plus usual care (n = 30) with usual care alone (n = 30). This study includes an embedded mixed-methods process evaluation. People with MS, aged 18-65 years, in paid employment will be recruited from MS charities. Participants with MS will be able to include their employers in the intervention to receive information about MS and employment. The intervention involves an initial interview and up to 10 hours of employment support for people with MS and up to four hours of support for employers, over six months. Employees from MS charities will be recruited and trained to deliver the MSVR intervention. Participants will be followed up by postal/telephone/online questionnaires at 6-, 9-, and 12-months post-randomisation. The aim is to ascertain the feasibility and acceptability of delivering the intervention within MS charities, and to determine parameters for future trial and explore the acceptability of the study intervention and procedures.
This novel study will provide insight into how existing services from MS charities can fill a service gap by providing employment support to people with MS. Findings will inform the design of a future fully powered RCT.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06966115.
多发性硬化症（MS）患者常因MS症状以及在处理职场人际关系和工作表现方面存在困难而过早离开职场。职业康复（VR）可改善MS患者的工作保留率，但缺乏关于这些干预措施有效性的证据。
一项多中心、可行性、平行组随机对照试验（RCT），将工作保留VR干预加常规护理（n = 30）与单纯常规护理（n = 30）进行比较。本研究包括一项嵌入式混合方法过程评估。年龄在18 - 65岁、有带薪工作的MS患者将从MS慈善机构招募。MS患者参与者可让其雇主参与干预，以获取有关MS和就业的信息。干预包括为期六个月的初始访谈，为MS患者提供长达10小时的就业支持，为雇主提供长达4小时的支持。将招募和培训来自MS慈善机构的员工来提供MSVR干预。随机分组后6个月、9个月和12个月，将通过邮寄/电话/在线问卷对参与者进行随访。目的是确定在MS慈善机构内实施该干预的可行性和可接受性，并确定未来试验的参数，探索研究干预措施和程序的可接受性。
这项新颖的研究将深入了解MS慈善机构的现有服务如何通过为MS患者提供就业支持来填补服务空白。研究结果将为未来全面的RCT设计提供参考。
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06966115。
