THU0740-HPR Determination of exercise behaviour in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis
Authors: N. Arman, E. Tarakcı, A. Adrovic, S. Sahin, K. Barut, O. Kasapcopur
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2018)

<h3>Background</h3> Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is one of the most common rheumatic diseases in childhood, affecting at least 1 in 1000 children. Children with JIA experience joint inflammation and swelling, pain and tenderness, morning stiffness, limited mobility. Children with JIA complain pain and have lower functional ability and decreased quality of life compared with their peers. Many studies have reported that patients with JIA have low physical activity levels and also exercise therapy is considered an important component of the treatment of JIA. Nowadays, studies for evaluating exercise behaviours in order to cope with physical inactivity for many chronic diseases are becoming increasingly important. <h3>Objectives</h3> The objective of this study was to determine exercise behaviour in patients with JIA. <h3>Methods</h3> 34 patients with JIA (23 female and 11 male), age range 5–18 years, home exercise program being recommended, participated in this study. The survey that was created with Google Forms was sent via WhatsApp to patients after 1 week-10 days than setting home based exercise program for each patient. In the survey, disease duration, involvement joint(s), Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) for functional ability, 11-point Numeric Analogue Scale (NRS) for satisfaction of exercising, Exercise Stages of Change Scale-Short Form (ESCS), Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES), and Decisional Balance Scale (DBS) for exercise behaviour were inquired for the patients with JIA. <h3>Results</h3> The mean age and disease duration were 11.38±4.68 and 5.36±4.16 years, respectively. The mean of the number of affected joints was 5±4.41. According to the five behavioural processes by ESCS, the patients were enrolled 38.2% of them in the stage of maintenance, 26.5% of them in the stage of action, 14.7% of them in the stage of preparation, 14.7% of them in stage of contemplation, 5.9% of them in stage of pre-contemplation. 67.5% of them was satisfaction for exercising (≥5 for NRS). When comparison of the patients’ CHAQ scores due to satisfaction level with NRS, the mean of CHAQ scores was significantly lower in patients with high satisfaction than patients with low satisfaction (p=0.014). The mean of scores ESES and DBS were 17.06±6.13 and 12±4.61, respectively. All of the patients represented “positive perception of exercise” due to DBS. Only a significant correlation with age of patient and DBS was found (r=0.375, p=0.029). <h3>Conclusions</h3> This study demonstrated that patients with JIA were in high stages participated in exercising and have high self-efficacy of exercise, decreasing of functional ability may affect the satisfaction level of exercising and as age increases, decisional balance for exercising also increases. Therefore, future researchers should investigate potential facilitators of and barriers to exercise for larger population in patients with JIA by following up long term. <h3>Disclosure of Interest</h3> None declared