Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Rheumatology Unit, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Zoology, College of Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Int J Rheum Dis. 2020 Nov;23(11):1541-1549. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.13959. Epub 2020 Sep 17.
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.
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.
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).
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.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的动态引起了风湿病学界的特别关注。风湿患者需要进行有效的健康管理，但他们的行为往往受到内在和外在因素的影响。本横断面研究旨在探讨患者在当前大流行期间的经历及其对他们的健康感知和行为的影响。
使用以患者为中心的电子调查，于 2020 年 3 月和 4 月在沙特阿拉伯随机抽取风湿患者。问题包括患者的社会人口统计学、疾病、药物、COVID-19 知识、信息来源、恐惧水平、疾病活动感知、医疗保健利用、药物可及性和治疗依从性（使用改良版药物依从性报告量表进行测量）。使用相关和回归系数评估上述变量之间的关联。
共纳入 637 名受访者。大多数是类风湿关节炎患者（42.7%）。患者对 COVID-19 的了解与社交媒体使用相关（P =.012）。对 COVID-19 感染的恐惧与随访就诊的医疗机构相关（P =.024），而对感染后疾病恶化的恐惧与患者的知识水平相关（P =.035）。这两种恐惧都与患者对疾病活动度的感知无关。然而，患者对疾病活动度恶化的感知与计划外的医疗访问、药物不依从和获取药物困难相关（P <.001、P =.010 和 P =.006）。
COVID-19 大流行及其周围的公共卫生措施可能会影响风湿患者的健康管理，这可能导致疾病恶化，并进一步加重医疗保健系统的负担。
