P641 Impact of lockdown period due to COVID-19 pandemic in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

BackgroundThe lockdown period due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Spain was established from 16th March to 21th June 2020. Therefore, the authorities controlled personal movements and private and public non-essential activities were cancelled. It has probably had an important emotional impact on chronic patients and hence in those who are suffering from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) due to their high risk of emotional disorders.The aim of this study is to know how COVID 19 influenced to the patients suffering from IBD during the quarantine period, focusing heavily on the psychological distress through the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), and also the impact of the pandemic on therapeutic adherence using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).MethodsThis is an unicentric and analytical observational study carried out in IBD unit of a large public teaching Hospital (University Hospital “Lozano Blesa”) during August 2020. Patients were contacted and interviewed by phone by two trained researchers not involved in the patient′s medical care. Inclusion criteria were age ≥ 18 years old and confirmed diagnosis of Crohn′s Disease (CD), Ulcerative Colitis (UC) or Indeterminate Colitis. A descriptive analysis was carried out and, subsequently, the factors associated with the loss of therapeutic adherence and higher-moderate levels of stress were analyzed through Logistic regression multivariate analyses.ResultsOf the 426 patients included, 217 (50.9%) were women, 249 (58.4%) had UC and 177 (41.6%) had EC. During the Spanish lockdown period, most of patients did not have symptoms related to their IBD (302; 72.1%). Among those who had symptoms, the most frequent was diarrhea and abdominal pain (11.5%). Most of subjects were not diagnosed of SARS-CoV2 infection (93%), whereas 2.1% suffered confirmed infection and 4.9% had compatible symptoms without test confirmation. Regarding economic situation of patients, most of them did not have economic difficulties (87.6%). Moreover, 74.4% of participants referred a very good physician-patient relationship and 21.8% a good relationship.People who participated in the study had a median PSS-10 score of 12 (10–16). A higher level of stress was reported between those who were not married, women, and those who experimented an increase of IBD related symptoms. Adherence to treatment was not associated with stress level based on PSS-10 questionnaire.ConclusionAlthough the lockdown period due to COVID-19 pandemic has probably had an important emotional impact on Spanish population, IBD patients had in general lower PSS-10 scores. It could be due to a good patient-physician relationship, which contributed to maintaining a good adherence to medications in those patients.