1. Evaluation of Depression and Anxiety in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients During COVID-19 Pandemic.
- Author
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Abd EL-Khalik, Dina M and Eltohamy, Mohamed
- Subjects
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STATISTICS , *COVID-19 , *CONFIDENCE intervals , *CROSS-sectional method , *MULTIVARIATE analysis , *MANN Whitney U Test , *REGRESSION analysis , *T-test (Statistics) , *PEARSON correlation (Statistics) , *RHEUMATOID arthritis , *MENTAL depression , *SYMPTOMS , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *CHI-squared test , *ANXIETY , *DATA analysis software , *DATA analysis , *COVID-19 pandemic , *DISEASE complications - Abstract
Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity, associated comorbidities, and therapy-related side effects impair the physical, social, and emotional dimensions of the patient's health. Presently, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a broad range of psychosocial disorders in various populations. Patients with RA are especially vulnerable to such effects. Objectives: Detect the prevalence of recent COVID-19 infection among patients with RA, assess depression and anxiety in these patients and their associated factors during the COVID-19 pandemic and their potential relation to disease activity. Design and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 120 adult Egyptian patients diagnosed with RA during the COVID-19 pandemic. The prevalence of recent COVID-19 infection among the patients was evaluated. The patients underwent psychological assessment using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Ham-D) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (Ham-A) to measure levels of depression and anxiety levels. The RA disease activity was assessed using Disease Activity Score (DAS) Das-28-ESR. Results: This study encompasses a total of 120 RA patients. The prevalence of patients with a recent history of COVID-19 infection was 40.8%. Both groups exhibited significantly elevated mean scores on the Das-28-ESR scale and also scored higher on measures of depression and anxiety. Interestingly, the COVID-19 group exhibited a higher percentage of unmarried individuals, had educational attainment below the university level, and were unemployed. Patients with recent COVID-19 had significantly lower numbers of children, higher disease duration, higher Das-28-ESR scores, and elevated depression and anxiety scores. The statistical analysis revealed that the COVID-19 infection and disease duration were significant predictors of depression and anxiety. The results also exhibited that the depression score was positively correlated with age and DAS scores. Conclusions: It was observed that patients diagnosed with RA revealed a higher prevalence of COVID-19 infection. The occurrence of depression and anxiety was observed to be widespread among patients diagnosed with RA and, more significantly, prevalent in RA patients who had a recent COVID-19 and had a higher level of disease activity. The occurrence of COVID-19 and disease duration were identified as factors that can anticipate the development of depression and anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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