P021 Children living with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: their views about online resources and social media

Abstract

Background Adolescents and children nowadays are quite accustomed to using the Internet for personal, social, and educational purposes. The purpose of our study was to determine the point of view of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) regarding the impact of social media on their lives. Methods We interviewed 23 children and adolescents, diagnosed with JIA according to the classification criteria of the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR). Results The mean age of our group was 16 years, with a sex ratio of 3. Ninety-seven of our participants confirmed that they’re using social media, for a mean of 3 h per day. YouTube and Facebook came back as the first two preferred platforms: 82.6% and 69.6% respectively, followed by Instagram 30.4%, Tiktok 21.7, Snapchat 17.4% and Whatsapp 8.7%. Seventeen percent of children viewed these platforms as a positive and helpful in dealing with JIA, specially taking their mind of pain, dealing with the stress resulting from the lack of mobility and facilitating interactions with others. Interestingly, none of the participants considered online resources as a place to interact with health professionals or have access to information about JIA. Conclusions According to their perceptions, children with JIA can benefit from an online resource, which helps them cope with some aspects of their disease, especially taking their mind of pain. Therefore, if used properly by health professionals, these online sources may be a great opportunity to deliver simplified and useful medical information for children with JIA.