Perspectives and Use of Assistive Technology By Persons with MS: A Scoping Review

Background: Persons with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS) experience accumulating impairments and functional limitations, affecting their engagement with daily activities. The use of assistive technology (AT) provides some PwMS the assistance they need to engage in activities and may contribute to delaying or avoiding entry to a nursing home. Yet, getting the right AT can be challenging as it requires matching person, task and environment. Synthesizing current knowledge about the use and perspectives of AT by PwMS would support the AT matching process.

Objectives: To determine what is currently known about assistive technology use by PwMS to support practice and development of future research.

Methods: The Arskey & O’Malley (2005) approach was used for this scoping review. Searches were conducted in Medline, CINAHL, PsychNet, and Engineering Village using “assistive technology”, “Multiple Sclerosis”, and terms capturing experience, attitudes and feelings. To be included, papers had to focus on PwMS living in non-institutional settings, and the person’s feelings, perception, or experiences with AT. Papers excluded focused on children or youth with MS or involved studies in a laboratory setting. Screening, full-text review, and extraction were conducted by two reviewers using Covidence. Extraction included type and purpose of AT and synthesis of quotes and experiences of PwMS using AT in their daily activities.

Results: 602 papers were identified. After screening and full text review, 46 were included for data extraction and final synthesis; 26 were from peer-reviewed journals and 20 were magazine articles. Common daily activities involving use of AT included functional mobility, transportation, personal care, household management, active recreation, and socialization. Perceptions about AT focused on the need for AT, adjusting to AT, influencing factors (e.g., funding, environment), performance and engagement improvements, and seeking advice for acquisition. Magazine articles shared participant experiences with successful AT matching to specific tasks.

Conclusions: There is a lack of robust research on the experiences and use of various types of AT by PwMS for the engagement in daily activities. Evidence from this scoping review provides some insights for future directions and implications to support AT acquisition and matching for PwMS.