Improving bone health management in people with multiple sclerosis (MS): knowledge insight from people with MS

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) are known to do less exercise and take more medications for disease and symptom management that are known to be linked with poorer bone health than the general population, e.g. steroids and antidepressants. Our preliminary data shows that the healthcare professionals (neurologists, GPs, physiotherapists etc ) who separately manage the health of people with MS, do not know too much about their musculoskeletal health. In fact, most did not know that people with MS are at increased risk for fracture and early onset osteoporosis. Given that little is known about musculoskeletal health from the healthcare professionals, the aim of this project is to determine how much knowledge people with MS have about their musculoskeletal health. We hypothesise that most people with MS won't know they are at an increased risk of a minimal trauma fracture or will likely develop osteoporosis at an earlier age compared to the general population. Ethics has already been gained and questionnaires have been approved.