Background/Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented public health crisis affecting people worldwide, including those with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDS).  REUMAVID aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on the wellbeing, mental health, disease activity and function, access to healthcare and treatment, support services, and hopes and fears of people RMDs.

Methods: REUMAVID is an international collaboration led by the Health & Territory Research group at University of Seville, Spain, together with a multidisciplinary team including patient organizations and rheumatologists. The study consists of an online survey gathering data from patients with a diagnosis of 15 RMDs in Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Participants are recruited by patient organizations. Data is collected in two phases: 1) during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic (Spring 2020), and 2) either during the predicted second peak, or as a follow-up if a second peak does not occur (Fall 2020). This analysis presents preliminary descriptive results of the aggregated data, summarizing continuous and categorical variables.

Results: A total of 1,707 RMD patients have participated in Phase 1 so far (from early April to mid-June 2020). The most frequent reported diagnosis were axial spondyloarthritis (47.5%), 618 (36.2%), rheumatoid arthritis (36.2%) and osteoarthritis (22.0%). Mean age was 50.9±17.1 years, 78.2% were female, 68.8% were in a relationship or married and 28.4% had university studies. In total, 1.4% had tested positive for COVID-19, 11.5% reported symptoms but were not tested, while 87.0% did not experience symptoms. 45.0% reported worsening health during the pandemic. 59.7% perceived their health status to be “fair to very bad” and 52.4% reported poor wellbeing according to the WHO-5 scale. Psychological health during the pandemic was also poor, with 55.3% marking as anxiety and 44.3% as depression in the HADS scale. Access to care was limited with 60.6% being unable to keep the rheumatologist appointment, of which 92.5% were cancelled by the provider.  15.3% changed their medication, for which 60.4% were changed by the provider and 28.1% own decision. Reported wellbeing and psychological health during the pandemic was poor, with 52.4% reporting poor wellbeing according to the WHO-5 scale, 55.3% marking as anxiety and 44.3% as depression in the HADS scale. During the pandemic, 25.0% smoked and 17.2% drank more than before and 42.9% were unable to exercise at home.

Conclusion: Preliminary results show disturbance of the healthcare quality, substantial changes to harmful health behaviors and an unprecedented impairment of mental health in REUMAVID participants. REUMAVID will continue to collect information in order to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in people affected by RMDs across Europe.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/assessment-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-from-the-perspective-of-people-with-rheumatic-musculoskeletal-diseases-in-europe-preliminary-results-from-the-reumavid-study/