Assessment of informational needs in Behcet’s patients

Behçet’s disease (BD) is one of the rare rheumatologic diseases which affects most commonly young adults in the third or fourth decade of life. Inspite of the multi system nature of the disease can lead to temporary or permanent functional disability, informational needs of BD patients is still unknown as no studies has investigated such issue, hence the aim is to assess the informational needs among patients with Behçet’s disease.  A cross-sectional descriptive design on a convenient sample of 68 adult BD patients was utilized. Data was collected using the following tools: (a) structured interview questionnaire and (b) the Arabic version of Toronto Informational Needs Questionnaire (TINQ) adapted for BD.  The highest percentage of the study sample was male (82.40%) came from rural area (61.80%) and aged 31-42 (58.00%) with a mean age of (38±7.01 years). The study results showed the information related to treatment, disease characteristics, investigative tests and psychosocial items are highly important needs among BD patients. Age, gender and education are influencing factors for informational needs in the sample of the study. Further replication of the study is recommended from different geographical areas