Evaluation of quality of life in patients with familial mediterranean fever

Introduction: In this study, we aimed to investigate the quality of life, tendency to depression, and self-esteem levels of patients with familial Mediterranean fever. Material and Method: The study included 50 FMF children between the ages of 11 and 18 and 50 healthy controls who were admitted to the Abant Izzet Baysal University Medical Faculty Pediatric Outpatient Clinic. A face to face survey was applied to all children. In the interview, variables as name, surname, age, sex, number of siblings, educational status of mother and father, working status of mother, father's occupation, monthly income of family, presence of FMF disease, presence and duration of colchicine use, consanguineous marriage, FMF familial history, presence of an individual using colchicine were questioned. In addition, the children's Quality of Life Scale, Depression Screening Inventory in Children and Adolescents and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale were applied to the participants. Results: The total quality of life scores of FMF patients were lower than the healthy control group; however, there is no statistically significant difference. There was a statistically significant difference between the control group and FMF patients in terms of scale scores related to school problems (p = 0.013). Mean scale scores related to school problems in FMF patients is statistically lower than that of control patients. There was no statistically significant difference between the control group and FMF patients in terms of depression score (p> 0.05). Overall, there was a high negative correlation between depression score and total quality of life scale score (r = -0.738, p <0.001). In other words, as the tendency of depression in children increases, the overall quality of life worsens. There was a statistically significant relationship between depression and gender. Mean depression scores of boys were found 2.181 points lower than girls. A statistically significant relationship was found between self-esteem score and depression score. When factors such as age, gender and FMF are kept constant, the depression score increases by 1 point and the self-esteem score increased by 0.115 points. In other words, when these factors are controlled, depression tendency in children adversely affects self-esteem. There was no statistically significant difference between the control group and FMF patients in terms of self-esteem score (p> 0.05). Conclusion: In this study, it has been shown that FMF as a chronic disease, has a negative effect on quality of life and depression and self-esteem. Our study is the first and only study in the literature examining the quality of life, depression and self-esteem in patients with FMF. There is a need for further large scale comprehensive prospective studies on quality of life and related issues in order to clearly reveal the effects of FMF and other chronic diseases on the children. By doing so it is possible to prevent relevant problems in the future of the children with the disease and offer them a more comfortable life. Key Words: Familial Mediterranean Fever, Health, Quality of Life, Depression, Self-Esteem