Body Image and Self-Esteem in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Introduction: The study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of disease-related variables such as socio-demographic characteristics, disease complaints and use of necrosis factor (anti-TNF) on the body image and self-esteem in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Method: The data was collected by an Introductory Information Form, Body Image Scale (PfP) BIS and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) in 120 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and in 120 healthy controls. One-way analysis of variance, Tukey HDS analysis, t-test, Kruskal-Wallis test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and Pearson's and Spearman's correlation coefficients were used to compare the data.

Result: 60% of the control group were in the 20-44 year-age group, 75% were women and 30.8% had a bachelor's degree or above, while 60% of patient group were in the 20-44 year-age group, 71.7% were women and 36.7% had a bachelor's degree or higher education level. We observed that the body satisfaction and self-esteem levels were higher in the 20-44 age group, in those with a bachelor's degree or higher education and in the patients who had no additional disease and who did not use anti-TNF. The body satisfaction and self-esteem levels were lower in those who had been receiving treatment for longer than 5 years, who had changes in hands and body, who had gait disturbance and who had changes in family and working life.

Conclusion: The assessment of the psychosocial needs with a holistic approach and training programs for body image and self-esteem would be advisable for patients with rheumatoid arthritis who are aged 45-59 years, who have low self-esteem, who have additional diseases, who use anti-TNF, who have changes in hands and body and who have primary-school education.