Abstract
Purpose :
Uveitis is an inflammatory ocular disease, with a high proportion of chronicity, a high rate of ocular morbidity and an important psychological component. The purpose was to describe coping strategies that intervene in the course of uveitis, which are crucial in this illness, in order to build and / or strengthen aspects that help patients to obtain adequate adaptation to this disease.
Methods :
A descriptive, cross-sectional case series study was performed in volunteer adult patients with active or non-active uveitis who consulted to an Ophthalmological Center in Bogotá, Colombia, between July-November 2016, and who agreed to enter the study by signing informed consent. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee at Universidad del Rosario. All study conduct adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
The variables under study were psychosocial, demographic and ophthalmological. The Modified Coping Strategies Scale (EEC-M) was used.
Results :
There were 66 patients, 43 women, mean age 43.6 ± 14.8 yo, 54.5% of the patients were in an acute episode of the disease. Bilateral eye involvement was found in 59.1%, some degree of inflammation in the anterior chamber in 40%, 9.23% presented BCVA between 20/60 and 20/200, 16 patients had unilateral legal blindness (BCVA <20/200), none of the patients presented bilateral legal blindness, 40.9% presented panuveitis, 28.8% posterior uveitis, 19.7% anterior uveitis and 10.6% intermediate uveitis.
40.9% of patients referred that the first episode of uveitis appeared after a stressful event, being general stress the most frequent event in 74.1%, followed by family problems and depression, both in 29.6%.
The most used coping strategies were: Professional Support 63.6%, Religion: 54.5% and Problem Solving: 48.5%, while the least used were Autonomy: 80.3%, Waiting: 66.7% and Aggressive reaction 9.1%.
Conclusions :
The most commonly used coping with illness strategies in patients with uveitis were professional support, religion and problem solving, and the least used were autonomy, aggressive reaction and waiting.
It is recommended to direct actions aimed at designing education strategies, psychological management and support guides, focused on directly benefiting the patient with uveitis, in order to strengthen support networks, which will improve their quality of life, their family, labor and social environment.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.