E11 The burden of illness perception among patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Abstract

Abstract Background Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is a debilitating condition that can negatively impact the life of children [1]. Indeed, because of a prolonged course of active disease, patients may experience several limitations and tend to have their unique perception of their illness. Objectives This study aimed to to investigate the illness perception of patients with JIA. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study including children with JIA (according to the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR)), recruited from our rheumatology department. Sociodemographic data and disease characteristics were collected. The patients were invited to answer the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ) to quantify their perception of the disease and how it affects their life. For the patients under the age of 11 years old, we asked the parents to answer the questionnaire. The BIPQ is a nine-item questionnaire rated using a 0-to10 response scale that assesses cognitive illness representations: consequences, timeline, personal control, treatment control, identity, emotional representations and illness comprehensibility [2]. Result Our study involved 31 patients with an average age of 28.7 [9–45] years and consisted of 12 (38.7%) males and 19 (61.3%) females. The mean age at onset and the duration of the disease were 6.6 years [2–13] and 255.84 [36–444] months, respectively. The distribution of the different forms of JIA was as follows: oligoarticular (n = 6), enthesitis-related arthritis (n = 4), polyarticular with positive rheumatoid factor (RF) (n = 9), polyarticular with negative RF (n = 7) and systemic form (n = 5). Regarding treatment modalities, 13 (41.9%) were on corticosteroids, 21 (67.7%) were treated with Cs-DMARDS and 11 (39.3%) were on anti-TNF alpha. Eleven patients required total hip replacement. The mean PGA was 27.6/100. Only eight patients had moderate to severe disease activity. All the patients responded to the entire BIPQ questionnaire with an average score of 46.48/80 [18–68]. Regarding the first question assessing the impact of the disease on life, our patients responded with an average score of 4.7/10 reflecting a healthy perception of the disease. There was a significant association between how much patients experience their symptoms and the emotional impact of the disease (r = 0.8; P = 0.001). Moreover, patients who had a personal and treatment control, were less prone to be affected by the disease emotionally (r = -0.006; P = 0.9). Conclusion Our work highlighted the importance of assessing illness perception of patients with JIA. This condition should be evaluated from different perspectives in order to implement a personalized management strategy. Ethics This work is ethically approved Key words: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis, illness perception