Özet:

Patient education in rheumatologic diseases is an integral part of recommendations for disease management. The objective of patient education programs is to not only give information about the patient's disease but also to facilitate participation in activities of daily living, decrease fatigue and pain, and modify work environments. Based on evidence from previous systematic reviews; different patient education programs have been demonstrated to have significant short-term effects on pain, disability, and depression in patients, but few studies have focused on long-term outcomes. The latest extended report about patient education from the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) stated that communication and shared decision-making between patients and their healthcare professionals are significant for effective patient education. Moreover, eight evidence-based and expert-opinion-based recommendations were developed for patients in the EULAR guideline. These recommendations generally emphasize that patient education should be individually tailored, needs-based, and patient-oriented. Although there were only a few studies on online patient education programs, these studies indicated promising findings on health status and physical activity level. In a rapidly growing digital era, it may be expected that face-to-face programs will be more commonly replaced by online programs. In recent years, many people have searched online for health-related information. A study demonstrated that the Internet was the most frequently used resource, and patients investigated two of the most frequent subjects: how to understand the meaning of disease and how to manage the symptoms. Evidence-based websites that are functional and practical should be promoted and designed as therapeutic instruments. Patients with chronic diseases find it challenging to cope with symptoms, in this regard, websites can assist in changing the cognitive-behavioral factors of symptom management strategies, improving patients' health conditions and quality of life. In spite of the importance of patient education in rheumatologic diseases, there are few studies, and comparing education, exercise, and combination studies is thin in the literature. These reasons have been an obstacle to translating research results into clinical recommendations. Future studies are needed to find ways of integrating patient education and exercise into the rehabilitation programs of patients with rheumatologic disease.

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