Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Adelaide Rd, Dublin 2, D02 XK51, Ireland.
Department of Ophthalmology, RCSI, University of Medicine and Health Sciences, 123 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, D02 YN77, Ireland.
Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 5;12(1):18761. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23676-x.
Those with underlying autoimmune conditions were met with unparalleled challenges and were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, we aimed to measure the impact of the pandemic on symptoms and the health and vision related quality of life (HR-QoL, VR-QoL) in patients with Primary Sjögren's Syndrome (pSS). Nineteen (55.9%) participants returned questionnaires for analysis, (17 female and 2 male, 61.6 years ± 9.9). There was no significant change in participants HR-QoL or VR-QoL, indicating that those with pSS remained resilient with regard to their physical and mental health throughout the pandemic. Furthermore, QoL was maintained despite 73.7% of participants having had outpatient appointments cancelled, delayed or rescheduled. Participants reported a lower QoL and feeling tenser in the COV19-QoL (3.3 ± 1.4 and 3.2 ± 1.3) representing feelings of apprehension and stress felt amongst the general population since the pandemic. Overall, and in spite of the concern caused by the COVID-19 pandemic for patients with autoimmune diseases, the health and well-being of patients with pSS remained stable. These findings strongly support the use of validated HR and VR-QoL questionnaires as an adjunct to the telemedicine consultation when assessing patients with pSS, offering an alternative to face-to-face consultations in post-pandemic era.
患有潜在自身免疫性疾病的人面临着前所未有的挑战，并且受到 COVID-19 大流行的不成比例的影响。因此，我们旨在衡量大流行对原发性干燥综合征 (pSS) 患者症状以及健康和视觉相关生活质量 (HR-QoL、VR-QoL) 的影响。有 19 名（55.9%）参与者返回问卷进行分析，（17 名女性和 2 名男性，61.6 岁±9.9 岁）。参与者的 HR-QoL 或 VR-QoL 没有显著变化，这表明在整个大流行期间，患有 pSS 的患者在身心健康方面仍然具有弹性。此外，尽管 73.7%的参与者取消、延迟或重新安排了门诊预约，但 QoL 仍得以维持。参与者报告说，在 COV19-QoL 中他们的 QoL 更低，感觉更紧张（3.3±1.4 和 3.2±1.3），这代表了自大流行以来普通人群的担忧和压力感。总体而言，尽管 COVID-19 大流行给自身免疫性疾病患者带来了担忧，但 pSS 患者的健康和幸福感保持稳定。这些发现有力地支持了在评估 pSS 患者时将经过验证的 HR 和 VR-QoL 问卷用作远程医疗咨询的辅助手段，为大流行后时代的面对面咨询提供了替代方案。
