Pos1446-Pare Knowledge and Experience of Parents of Children With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes physical and psychological handicaps. Its management is based on good collaboration between the physician and the parents. Objectives: Our study aimed to assess parents' knowledge of JIA and its management. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study including parents of children with JIA diagnosed according to the criteria of the International League of Associations of Rheumatology (ILAR) classification. Their knowledge of the disease was assessed using a self-questionnaire in dialectal Arabic. Results: Thirty-six parents were recruited. The average age of the children was 13.5 ± 5.9 years, with a female predominance of 55.6%. The polyarticular form was the most frequent (52.8%), followed by the oligoarticular form (13.9%), then the enthesitis-related form (12.4%). The mean duration of the disease was 5.5±4.7 years. Only 38.8% of parents had information about JIA: 85.7% knew it was a chronic inflammatory disease, 21.4% thought it was hereditary and 14.2% thought it was congenital. Only 27.7% knew that JIA could have extra-articular manifestations. 44.4% of parents knew the signs of a disease flare-up. In 52.7% of cases, parents were afraid of treatment because of possible side effects. Parent's, overall assessment of the disease was as follows: stable in 27.7%, average in 50%, and severe in 22.3% of cases. Conclusion: According to our study, parents' knowledge of JIA was insufficient, and this may affect their children's management of the disease. For good disease control, parents and physicians need to collaborate more effectively. REFERENCES: NIL. Acknowledgements: NIL. Disclosure of Interests: None declared.