Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov;23(11):1541-1549.
doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.13959. Epub 2020 Sep 17.

Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on rheumatic patients' perceptions and behaviors: A cross-sectional study

Lena Mostafa Hassen  1   2 , Ibrahim A Almaghlouth  1   3 , Ikhlass Mostafa Hassen  4 , Maha H Daghestani  2 , Amal A Almohisen  5 , Eman M Alqurtas  1 , Abdulaziz Alkhalaf  1 , Mohammed K Bedaiwi  1 , Mohammed A Omair  1 , Sultan M Almogairen  1 , Hussein F Alarfaj  1 , Abdulrahman S Alarfaj  1
Affiliations

Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on rheumatic patients' perceptions and behaviors: A cross-sectional study

Lena Mostafa Hassen et al. Int J Rheum Dis. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Aim: The dynamics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become of special concern to the rheumatology community. Rheumatic patients are required to engage in effective health management but their behavior is often influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. This cross-sectional study aims to examine patients' experiences during the current pandemic and its implication on their health perception and behavior.

Method: A patient-centered electronic survey was used, randomly sampling rheumatic patients in Saudi Arabia during March and April 2020. Questions included patients' socio-demographics, diseases, medications, COVID-19 knowledge, source of information, fear level, disease activity perception, health care utilization, medication accessibility, and therapeutic compliance (measured using a modified version of Medication Adherence Reporting Scale). Correlation and regression coefficients were used to evaluate associations among the aforementioned variables.

Results: A total of 637 respondents were included. The majority were rheumatoid arthritis patients (42.7%). Patients' knowledge about COVID-19 was correlated with social media use (P = .012). Fear of COVID-19 infection correlated with healthcare facility for follow-up visits (P = .024) and fear of disease deterioration if contracting the infection correlated with patients' levels of knowledge (P = .035). Both types of fear did not correlate with patients' perceptions of disease activity. However, patients' perceptions of worsened disease activity were correlated with unplanned healthcare visits (P < .001), medication non-adherence, and difficulty accessing medication (P = .010 and .006, respectively).

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and surrounding public health measures could affect rheumatic patients' health management which might contribute to disease flare-up and subsequently taxing healthcare systems even further.

Keywords: COVID-19 outbreak; disease activity perception; health care utilization; medication adherence; self-management.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Bauer UE, Briss PA, Goodman RA, Bowman BA. Prevention of chronic disease in the 21st century: elimination of the leading preventable causes of premature death and disability in the USA. Lancet. 2014;384(9937):45-52.
    1. Huang C, Wang Y, Li X, et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China [published correction appears in Lancet. 2020 Jan 30]. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):497-506.
    1. Grasselli G, Zangrillo A, Zanella A, et al. Baseline characteristics and outcomes of 1591 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 admitted to ICUs of the Lombardy region, Italy [published online ahead of print, 2020 Apr 6]. JAMA. 2020;323(16):1574-1581.
    1. Cheng C, Li C, Zhao T, et al. COVID-19 with rheumatic diseases: a report of 5 cases. Clin Rheumatol. 2020;39(7):2025-2029.
    1. Jones VG, Mills M, Suarez D, et al. COVID-19 and kawasaki disease: novel virus and novel case. Hosp Pediatr. 2020;10(6):537-540.

LinkOut - more resources