Illness Trajectory in Scleroderma Patients

Abstract

Background and Objective : Scleroderma was a chronic disease which showed skin thickened texture along with internal organ disorders. Each patient responsed to disease in different pattern. This study was aimed to explore illness trajectory in scleroderma patients.

Methods : An exploratory case study was applied in this study. Twelve scleroderma patients were selected purposively from scleroderma clinic at Srinagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University.  Data were collected by using in-depth interviewed and 1) reviewing the out-patient cards, 2) in-depth interviewed, and 3) observation. The content analysis was applied to analyze data.

Results : The results found that the illness trajectories of scleroderma patients could be classified into three patterns. The first pattern was the persistently long term stable phase with changing into unstable phase. This pattern showed mild and slowly chang of pathology. The second pattern was long term stable phase with short interruption of unstable phase, which showed typical symptoms of disease without internal organs changes. The third pattern was the cyclic change between short unstable and stable phases. Patients in this group had experiences of typical organ involvements with disorders of internal organs including lung and heart. Samples in each pattern had to face with health problem related to different trajectories.

Conclusion : This research reflected that the illness trajectory framework could be applied to study illness patterns in scleroderma patients which was useful for planning of care related to trajectories phases in each patient.

Keywords : Illness trajectory, Scleroderma, Systemic sclerosis