Education in the management of juvenile chronic arthritis. Changes in self-reported competencies among adolescents and parents of young children.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose was to evaluate changes in self-reported competencies following an education program among parents of children with juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) and among adolescents with JCA.


METHODS
The self-reported, 24-item MEPS questionnaire was used for evaluating the program. Fifty-five parents and 11 adolescents completed the questionnaire before, directly after, and four months after the eight-hour program.


RESULTS
Parents in the education program improved significantly concerning their self-reported competencies on medical, exercise, pain and social support issues, while the adolescents showed only minor improvement. The parents' positive development in some comparisons was also significant in relation to that of a non-educated group, whose responses remained mainly unchanged over the four months.


CONCLUSIONS
Given the advantages of the education program indicated in the study, parent education should be a self-evident part of the treatment in JCA.
André
M
M
Department of Women and Child Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. marie.andre@home.se
Hagelberg
S
S
Stenström
C H
CH
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D017668:Age of Onset; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010358:Patient Participation; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011788:Quality of Life; D012307:Risk Factors; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012944:Social Support; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology