title: Experiences of UK health-care services for people with Multiple Sclerosis: a systematic narrative review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, degenerative condition with an estimated UK prevalence of 100 000. Contact with health-care services is frequent and long-term; however, little research has investigated the experiences of health care for MS in the UK.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this systematic narrative review was to critically review qualitative studies reporting patients' experiences of health-care services in the UK.
  
  
  METHODS
  EMBASE, CINAHL, Medline, psychINFO and MS Society databases were searched with no date restrictions using search terms denoting 'Multiple Sclerosis', 'health-care services', 'patient', 'experience' and 'qualitative research'. Snowballing and hand searching of journals were used.
  
  
  METHODS
  Studies were included if they used qualitative methods of data collection and analysis to investigate adult patient's experiences of health-care services for MS in the UK.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were extracted independently and analysed jointly by two reviewers. Studies were appraised for the quality of evidence described using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme's qualitative tool. Due to the breadth of areas covered, the data were too heterogeneous for a synthesis and are presented as a narrative review.
  Five studies were included. Studies primarily investigated diagnosis or palliative care. Themes of importance were the emotional experience of health care, continuity of care and access to services, and support from health-care professionals. Studies were mainly poor quality and focussed on a homogenous sample.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides the first review of the UK evidence base of experiences of health care for MS. Future research should investigate experiences of care after diagnosis in a more varied sample of participants.
authors.affiliation: University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Abigail M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Methley
authors.affiliation: University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.|Keele University, Keele, UK.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chew-Graham
authors.affiliation: University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Sudeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cheraghi-Sohi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D036301:Qualitative Research; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Multiple Sclerosis; narrative review; patient experience; qualitative; systematic review