The evaluation of body image and self-esteem in patients with chronic diseases

Aim: The prevalence of chronical diseases increases day by day and these chronic diseases are the first cause of dead in worldwide so these ilness importance increases. The course and the treatment of chronic diseases is going on many years and these cause economically and psychosocially heavy burden over the individual and society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of psychosocial problems, that may occur in individuals with chronic diseases, to body image and selfesteem Material-Method: The patients that admitted to Turgut Ozal Medical Center and Malatya State Hospital outpatient and inpatient clinic were included in this study. Statistical analyzes made by SPSS22.0 and the value of p < 0.05 accepted significant. Results: The data was collected from 241 Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients and 59 healty control group. 57% of study participants were men and women was 43 %. The average age of participants was 57.72 ± 12.2 years. The average self-esteem score of the participants was calculated as 18.17 ± 4.091. The average body image score of the study participants was calculated as 140.19 ± 26.920. The average self-esteem and body image scores among all groups was lowest in heart failure patients and highest in control group (p<0,001). In chronical diseases group average score of self-esteem and body image was highest in diabetus mellitus patients. Conclusion: Individuals who have chronic diseases has more psychosocial problems than healthy individuals and these has negative affect on body image and selfesteem of patients. We need to determine the best medical and psychological needs of our patients as family physicians because we are responsible continued medical care and we are contact with our patients at every stage of their disease. We will provide proper treatment and when necessary we should direct the center to receive appropriate treatment. Key words: Chronic Diseases, Self-esteem, Body image