title: Unmet care needs of people with a neurological chronic disease: a cross-sectional study in Italy on Multiple Sclerosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Community-based studies are required to accurately describe the supportive services needed by people with multiple sclerosis (MS).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1205 people with MS participated in a cross-sectional study evaluating their unmet health and social care needs through a questionnaire collecting information used in the study. It was specifically developed by a multi-disciplinary team.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 79% of the responders declared at least one health or social care needs. The most prevalent health care need was the psychological support (27.5%), whereas the transport was the social care need more frequent (over 41%) in our sample. The multivariate analysis highlighted that unmet health care needs depended mainly on clinical factors such as disease stage, influenced by disease duration, and disability degree, whereas the social care needs were related to both clinical and socio-demographic factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that MS needs significantly change over time during the disease development and to find the best way to personalize PwMS management is crucial. Moreover, more public funding directed at improving the health-related quality of life of people with MS is needed. For this reason, we think that these results will provide important information and baseline data on how to build the national service strategies thereby making healthcare planning more efficient.
authors.affiliation: 1 Scientific Research Area, Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (FISM), Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ponzio
authors.affiliation: 1 Scientific Research Area, Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (FISM), Genoa, Italy andrea.tacchino@aism.it.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tacchino
authors.affiliation: 1 Scientific Research Area, Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (FISM), Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zaratin
authors.affiliation: 2 Fondazione CENSIS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Concetta
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vaccaro
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Life Science, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Mario Alberto
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Battaglia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
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