Background: Rheumatoid arthritis affects the patient’s perception of his/her owns body. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between body image, feeling of loneliness and suicidal thoughts among elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Design: A descriptive correlational design was utilized to achieve the aims of the study. Setting: This study was conducted at the outpatient’s clinics of Dr/ Hassan Awad (Health Insurance) Benha City. Sample: A convenience sample type of 120 elderly people with rheumatoid arthritis from rheumatology clinic at the previously mentioned setting. The tools of data collection: Were interview questionnaire about socio demographic and disease characteristics of the subjects, interviewing questionnaire sheet to examine patient’s perception to their body image, Loneliness Scale to examine the level of loneliness, Suicidal Thought Scale to evaluate patient suicidal thoughts. Results: Near to one third of the studied subjects had high level of body image, less than half of the studied patients had high level of loneliness and the minority of the studied patients had suicidal thoughts. Conclusion: The studied patients had disturbed body image, high level of loneliness. There was a positive highly statistically significant correlation between total score of body image with total score of feeling loneliness and total score of suicidal thoughts. Recommendations: Patients' education should be aimed at strengthening body image and social life, the need to target interventions not only to patients but also to their family members and health professionals to recognize disturbed body image and feeling of loneliness.
Mohamed Ibrahim, A., Ibrahem El-Malky, M., & saied Sayed, F. (2021). Body Image, Feeling Loneliness, and Suicidal Thoughts among Elderly People with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Journal of Nursing Science Benha University, 2(2), 43-53. doi: 10.21608/jnsbu.2021.186422
MLA
Amira Mohamed Ibrahim; Maaly Ibrahem El-Malky; Fathyea saied Sayed. "Body Image, Feeling Loneliness, and Suicidal Thoughts among Elderly People with Rheumatoid Arthritis", Journal of Nursing Science Benha University, 2, 2, 2021, 43-53. doi: 10.21608/jnsbu.2021.186422
HARVARD
Mohamed Ibrahim, A., Ibrahem El-Malky, M., saied Sayed, F. (2021). 'Body Image, Feeling Loneliness, and Suicidal Thoughts among Elderly People with Rheumatoid Arthritis', Journal of Nursing Science Benha University, 2(2), pp. 43-53. doi: 10.21608/jnsbu.2021.186422
VANCOUVER
Mohamed Ibrahim, A., Ibrahem El-Malky, M., saied Sayed, F. Body Image, Feeling Loneliness, and Suicidal Thoughts among Elderly People with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Journal of Nursing Science Benha University, 2021; 2(2): 43-53. doi: 10.21608/jnsbu.2021.186422
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