Perception of Disease and Coping Attitudes in Patients with Celiac Disease

The study was conducted to investigate the factors affecting the perception of disease and coping attitudes in patients with celiac disease. The study was conducted with 100 celiac patients in Istanbul. The data were collected by applying “Introductory Information Form”, “Illness Perception Questionnaire”, and “Coping Inventory”. In the statistical analysis, t-test, Tukey and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used. It was observed that 63% of the patients were female, 52% were single, 21% were overweight. It was determined that there was a significant difference in terms of gender, marital status and income level, diet list, difficulty in dietary compliance in coping inventory (p<0.05). It was observed that the patients were emotionally affected by their diseases and exhibited problem-focused coping behaviors from coping attitudes. It was determined that there was a negative correlation between the patients' age and illness coherence and emotional representations and between diagnosis time and emotional representation, personal attribution, lifestyle and chance factor (p<0.01). It was determined that there was a negative correlation between the dieting duration and emotional representations, personal attribution, lifestyle and chance factor (p<0.01). It was seen that there was a positive correlation between the age and problem-focused coping method and a negative correlation between the age and the dysfunctional subscale (p<0.01). It was seen that there was a positive correlation between the timeline (acute/chronic) and emotional-focused coping subscales, between personal control and problem focused and emotional focused coping subscales and between the treatment control and emotional focused coping subscale (p<0.05). It was also observed that 88% of the patients experienced symptoms like constipation and diarrhea, perceived their diseases as chronic, and the disease affected their physical, social and psychological functions. It may be recommended to comprehensively examine especially the factors obstructing their dietary compliance and influencing perception of disease.