AB1214
JUVENILE IDIOPATHIC ARTHRITIS: ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO THE CHILD’S DISEASE
V. Malievsky 1,*G. Gareeva 1
1Department Of Pediatrics, Bashkir State Medical University, Ufa, Russian Federation
Background: Juvenile idiopathicarthritis affect essentially the quality of life of sick children. In the social and psychological adaptation of a sick child, of a great importance are intrafamily relations, including the parents’ psychological reaction to the child’s disease.
Objectives: There were questionnaired mothers of 108 patients (46 boys and 62 girls) with juvenile arthritides at the age from 7 to 16 years.
Methods: To study psychological reaction of parents to the child’s disease, the “Procedure of diagnostics of parents’ attitude to the child’s disease” (V.E. Kagan, I.P. Zhuravleva) were used. The questionnaire consisted of 40 points-assertions, agreement with which was estimated by the 6-score scale (from “absolutely do not agree” to “agree completely”). The questionnaire structure was represented by 5 scales: internality, anxiety, nosognosia, control of activity, and the total stress. Positive values indicated expression of this sign, while negative values – its absence.
Results: The highest values are obtained in the scale of anxiety, which indicates the parents’ anxious reaction to the child’s disease. In rare cases (15.7%) there were recorded negative values on this scale due to the neutral attitude to the disease.
The nosognosia scale was characterized by low positive values, which on the whole indicates an adequate perception of the child’s disease. In a quarter of parents (30 persons, 27.8%), negative values reflecting underestimation of seriousness of the disease were observed. In parents’ opinion, their child needs no serious treatment.
Positive values on the internality scale indicate a parents’ external control, i.e., the cause of the disease is perceived as independent of them. Such parents think that they cannot prevent development of the disease, are unable to control the course of disease and to affect somehow its outcome.
Negative scale values of control of activity indicate the absence of restrictions of physical activity in children with juvenile arthritides.
With increase of the degree of activity, the parents’ anxiety rose (r = 0.2, р = 0.037), whereas with rising functional insufficiency there was increasing the nosognosia parameter (r = 0.2, р = 0.034).
Conclusions: Psychological reaction of parents to the child’s disease is characterized by increased anxiety on the background of the adequate perception of the disease. At the same time, not infrequent are the cases of anosognosia (denial of seriousness of disease), negation of a possibility of affecting the course of disease. The psychological peculiarities of the parents’ attitude to the child’s disease can affect negatively the parents’ compliance of adherence to physician’s recommendations.
Disclosure of Interest: None Declared