BackgroundSystemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA)/Still's disease is a rare form of chronic arthritis in pediatrics. The patient perspective of living with the disease is not well understood, particularly among adolescent age patients.ObjectivesThe objective was to understand the adolescent SJIA experience as shown by their own social media posts.MethodsEnglish posts from SJIA patients were reviewed on public social media sites.Results71 posts with a date range of 2009–2015 on 15 sites were reviewed in Nov 2015. 24 unique authors were identified: 17 SJIA patients (40 posts) and 7 mothers of SJIA patients (12 posts). Patients were aged 13–20 years. Several patients posted about similar diagnostic experiences marked by 5 stages: (1) misunderstood with their pain and fatigue being overlooked until a crisis occurs, (2) dismissed as “fakers”, where their initial misdiagnosis is often “growing pains” or “fake pains”, (3) misdiagnosis, often as cancer, when the symptoms acutely worsen (4) testing stage that leads to an SJIA diagnosis, and (5) focus on the difficulties of dealing with a chronic invisible disease where they feel ashamed of their arthritis and distressed at being different from their peers. Many adolescent patients, looking back at the onset of the disease when they were children, describe themselves as a “sleeping child” rather than the typical active, playing child. Patients describe trying to hide their illness from friends, but express their concerns more openly online. Patients also describe anger directed at SJIA which is described as a powerful external enemy attacking their body, using terms like “bulldozer,” “dragon”, and “monster'.' Many posters used superhero language or imagery in their social media posts to help them “fight” the disease and their struggle. Mothers of SJIA patients also used warrior-child imagery and language in their posts. Some SJIA patients also posted about the risk of death, or shared stories about other SJIA patients who died which is a distinct difference from non-SJIA patients. Many patients also have adopted the term “spoonie” to describe themselves as living with a chronic disease, a term that originated in the autoimmune community to refer to how people with chronic conditions manage their energy throughout the day. Only the older teenagers used the term Still's.ConclusionsAdolescent SJIA patients posted openly about the difficulties of their disease causing them to be different from their healthy friends, whereas in the real world they tried to minimize or hide the effects of their disease. They frequently used superhero words and images in posts in describing their fight for health. Physicians can use these insights when counseling adolescent SJIA patients to provide a narrative that meshes with the patients' worldview and perhaps, by speaking a similar language, could increase treatment adherence.Disclosure of InterestR. Modica: None declared, K. Lomax Employee of: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp, P. Batzel: None declared, A. Cassanas: None declared, M. Elder: ...
BackgroundChildren with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA) often encounter a delay between symptom onset and disease diagnosis, partly due to the broad differential of fever and lack of symptom recognition by providers. Families often seek multiple medical opinions and post on social media about their frustrations. This linguistic analysis observed the changing language patterns and social media posting behaviors of parents in the time leading to, during, and after SJIA diagnosis.MethodsPublic social media sites were manually reviewed by a linguistic team to evaluate posts about SJIA from US-based parents.ResultsA total of 3,979 posts between July 2001 and January 2015 were reviewed from 108 sites. Pre-SJIA diagnosis parents sought answers and shared status updates on social media, focusing primarily on the following three site types: alternative/natural lifestyle forums (39%), Facebook (27%), and disease-specific forums (17%). Posts during early prediagnosis phases were characterized by expressive language showing confidence in health care providers and trust in parental instincts. At later prediagnosis stages, parents continued to use social media, but the posts demonstrated increased frustration with delays in diagnosis and gaps in communication with providers. More objective symptom descriptions and a greatly reduced child-centered emotional focus were observed as parents shifted into caregiving roles. Once the diagnosis of SJIA was confirmed, parents used straightforward, less expressive language, and Facebook (47%) to make “announcement” posts and increased their use of SJIA websites (30%). With treatment initiation, the posts demonstrated a slow return of expressive language and an increased parental understanding of the “new normal”.ConclusionParents use different language styles, frames of reference, and websites before and after SJIA diagnosis. Gaps in parent–provider communication, especially before diagnosis, and their new roles as caregivers lead to parental use of social media to express frustration with the health care process. Providers should tailor their discussions with parents to address these issues.
PurposeTo understand the experience of adolescent systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA) patients and those of their parents based on their social media posts.MethodsEnglish language posts related to SJIA, Still’s disease, or juvenile arthritis were collected and analyzed.ResultsIn total, 71 posts created between 2009 and 2015 on 15 websites were identified in November 2015. Of the 32 unique authors, 17 were SJIA patients aged 13–20 years (40 posts), 7 were mothers of SJIA patients (12 posts), and 8 patients had unspecified forms of juvenile arthritis (19 posts). Many patients posted about similar diagnostic experiences marked by 5 phases: 1) early prediagnosis: pain and fatigue overlooked until crisis occurred, 2) first misdiagnosis: doctors talked about “growing pains” and psychosocial problems (“fake pains” to avoid school), 3) second misdiagnosis: severity acknowledged, but diagnosed as leukemia or another cancer, 4) tests: tests leading to diagnosis and treatment conducted, and 5) cognitive identity: patient accepted the diagnosis and its implications. Many adolescent patients, looking back at disease onset in their childhood, described themselves as a “sleeping child” rather than the typical active child. Several patients tried to hide their illness from friends, but expressed concerns openly online. Many patients described SJIA as a powerful external enemy, using terms like “bulldozer,” “dragon,” and “monster.” Many posts from patients and their mothers used superhero language/imagery to help “fight” SJIA. Some patients also posted about the risk of death.ConclusionAlthough most adolescent SJIA patients openly posted about the difficulties of their disease online, they made efforts to hide their disease in the real world. They frequently used superhero words and images in describing their fight for better health. Physicians can use these insights when counseling SJIA patients to provide a narrative that meshes with the patients’ worldview and perhaps to improve physician–patient communication to increase treatment adherence.
Introduction: In 2015 the historic Jones criteria for the diagnosis of Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) were revised introducing two different sets of criteria for low-risk and for moderate/high-risk populations (according to ARF incidence). In Italy the exact ARF incidence is unknown but small regional or local reports suggest an incidence of 2-5/100.000 per year, suggesting that our population might be considered at moderate risk for ARF. Objectives: To evaluate the performance of the revised Jones criteria in a retrospective population and to compare it with the performance of the previous version of Jones criteria. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study on 288 patients with ARF (108 female; median age 8.5 years, IQR 7.1-10.3) diagnosed from 2001 to 2015 in a Pediatric Rheumatology Division by pediatric rheumatologists, discharged with an ICD 9 code consistent with ARF. We retrospectively applied the two sets (for low-risk and for moderate/high-risk) of the 2015 revised Jones criteria and the 1992 version of the Jones criteria. Results: Of 288 patients, 253 (87.8%) met the 1992 version of the Jones criteria, 237 (82.3%) met the revised criteria for low-risk populations and 259 (89.9%) for moderate/high-risk populations. None of these differences was significant. Prevalence of major and minor criteria is shown in Table. With the exception of difference in arthritis, the 1992 version and the 2015 revised version did not show major differences. Of the 288 patients with a clinical diagnosis of ARF 29 did not meet any version of the Jones criteria. Patients in this group presented with isolated chorea or silent carditis without other manifestations. Prevalence of the clinical characteristics and comparison among the 1992 version of Jones criteria and the 2015 revised Jones criteria (low risk and moderate-high risk populations): Values are expressed in Number (percentage). *p value (Fisher Exact test) Conclusion: The revised Jones criteria for low-risk populations are slightly more sensitive than the 1992 version of Jones criteria, while the revised Jones criteria for moderate/high populations are slightly less sensitive than the 1992 version. In this population, the revised criteria did not substantially modify the diagnosis of ARF. Approximately 10% of patients presented with isolated chorea or silent carditis.
Research and initiatives within healthcare are increasingly focused on integrating the voice of patients with the recognition that understanding patients’ experiences and values are essential to providing meaningful treatment and treatment programs. In this paper, I address the nature of existing research relative to the concepts of Patient Centered Care and Patient Reported Outcomes as well as the degree to which that research integrates patients’ voices as heard through social media. The article argues that while there is increasing recognition of the internet as a location through which to reach patients - such as for delivery of information and healthcare management tools - there are great opportunities for conducting significantly more and much deeper analyses of patients’ (and healthy people’s) vantage point via the discussions they have online with peers in social media. Social media locations range from open communities within Facebook and Reddit to much smaller open-access .org and .com communities. Analyses can provide insight into a range of questions from patients’ cognitive orientation and ways of making sense of or working with their disease to the physician-patient relationship as signaled by patients’ positioning of the physician.
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