LAUSR

Background Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is a chronic childhood autoimmune disease that has significant implications on a childs physical health and psychosocial integration (1). Common symptoms of JIA include pain, joint stiffness, joint swelling, fatigue, and decreased physical function (2,3). Objectives The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of morning stiffness on the psychosocial and functional status of patients with JIA. Methods 387 JIA patients were included in this study. To determine the functional status of the patients functional subscale of The Juvenile Arthritis Biopsychosocial-Questionnaire (JAB-Q) and Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) were used. Psychosocial subscale of JAB-Q was used to assess psychosocial status. Finally, morning stiffness was measured as “less than 30 minutes”, “between 30 minutes and 1 hour” and “more than 1 hour”. Results A total of 162 boys and 225 girls participated in the study (Table 1). The effect of morning stiffness on functional and psychosocial status was examined with Kruskal Wallis analysis. There were statistically significant differences between the functional status (CHAQ Total, p=0,001; CHAQ General VAS, p=0.012; CHAQ Pain VAS, 0.001; Function JAB-Q, p<0.001) of the patients and the duration of morning stiffness. However, there was no significant difference between the duration of morning stiffness and psychosocial status. Mann-Whitney U test was performed to test the significance of a pairwise difference using Bonferroni correction to adjust for multiple comparisons revealed that the difference between the groups was due to the morning stiffness duration “less than 30 minutes” group (Table 2).Abstract AB1371HPR Table 1 Descriptive statistics Mean SD Age 12.503.67 BMI 19.934.34 Gender Female [n(%)] 225 (58.14) Male [n(%)] 162 (41.86)Abstract AB1371HPR Table 2 Mann-Whitney U test p p p p CHAQ Total CHAQ (General VAS) CHAQ (Pain VAS) Function 1-2 0.004 0.003 0.001 0.002 1-3 0.004 0.237 0.028 < 0.001 2-3 0.393 0.517 0.943 0.038 1= <30 min morning stiffness, 2= 30 min-1 hour morning stiffness, 3= >1 hour morning stiffness Conclusion In our study, as a result psychosocial status was not affected by duration of morning stiffness. On the other hand, functionality of patients were getting worse as the duration of morning stiffness increases. It was concluded that psychosocial status should be dealt with independently of functional status, and children should be supported to participate in psychosocial environment such as school attendance, social activities. References [1] Cassidy JT, Petty RE. Chronic arthritis in childhood. In Textbook of pediatric rheumatology. 5th edition.Edited byCassidy JT, Petty RE, Laxer RM, Lindsley CB. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2005; 206-60 [2] Stanley LC, Ward-Smith P. The diagnosis and management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. J Pediatr Health Care 2011;25:191-94. [3] Johnson CJ, Reilly KM, Murray KM. Etanercept in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Annals of Pharmacotherapy 2001;35:464-71. Disclosure of Interests None declared