Quality of life questionnaires validate a remote approach to ophthalmic management of primary Sjögren’s syndrome

Abstract

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.

Impacto da COVID na qualidade de vida: Evidências da validade da versão brasileira da “COVID-19 – Impact on quality of life scale”

“…Ao comparar a experiência dos participantes com a gravidade dos sintomas durante a pandemia, a COV19-QoL correlacionou-se com o SF-36 de forma negativa e estatisticamente significante entre as dimensões aspectos físicos (r=-0,77; p<0,001), vitalidade (r=-0,71; p<0,001) respectivamente, entretanto a dimensão saúde mental (r=-0,60; p= 0,006) apresentou correlação negativa sem associação significante. Para mais, observa-se que os participantes com SSp tiveram uma percepção de QVRS significativamente menor em todas as escalas do SF-36, sejam estas pré COVID-19 (p<0,001) ou durante (p=0,001), além de também manifestarem menor qualidade de vida devido a sentimentos de tensão relacionados ao estresse e depressão, no que diz respeito ao período de desenvolvimento da pandemia (Greenan et al, 2022).…”