The prevalence of symptoms and its correlation with sex in polish COVID-19 adult patients: Cross-sectional online open survey.

Background: The understanding and treatment of COVID-19 has improved rapidly since December 2019 when SARS-CoV-2 was sequenced. However most papers on its symptomatology focus on hospitalized patients and address only a limited number of major presentations. Although differences depending on sex of COVID-19 patients have been previously confirmed (higher ICU admission and higher death rate for men), no publication has focused on sex-related differences in COVID-19 symptomatology. Objective: The aim of the study was to present a reliable list of COVID-19 symptoms and identify any differences in symptom prevalence depending on sex. Methods: A sample of Polish patients suffering from COVID-19 were surveyed using a cross-sectional anonymous online survey in Polish available on a web-based surveying platform (Survey Monkey). The survey included 20 questions asking about COVID-19 symptoms, days of occurrence (from day 1 until day 14 and "15 days or more") and patient characteristics including sex, age, height, weight, place of residence and type of therapy received during COVID-19. The survey was made available during the third COVID-19 wave in Poland. The link to the survey was distributed across social networks. Participation was open to anyone willing, without any incentives. The data was analyzed statistically. Results: Survey responses were collected from 2,408 participants (56.9% women) aged 18-90 (42 ± 12), 84.7% living in cities, who took part in the study between December 2020 and February 2021. Out of 54 predefined symptoms, the three most prevalent were fatigue (reported by 87.61% respondents), anosmia (73.74%) and headache (69.89%). Women were found to be more symptomatic than men, 31 symptoms occurred more often in women (including anosmia, headache and myalgias, p < 0.05). Subfebrility, fever and hemoptysis were more prevalent in men. Twelve symptoms (incl. hypothermia, sneezing and nausea) lasted longer in women than men (p < 0.05). Fatigue, cough, nasal dryness, xerostomia and polydipsia were the longest lasting symptoms of COVID-19 (lasted over 14 days). Conclusion: Our study presents a wide range of symptoms, which may enable better recognition of COVID-19, especially in an outpatient setting. Understanding these differences in the symptomatology of community and hospitalized patients may help diagnose and treat patients faster and more accurately. Our findings also confirmed differences in symptomatology of COVID-19 between men and women, which may lay the foundation for a better understanding of the different courses of this disease in the sexes. Further studies are necessary to understand whether a different presentation correlates with a different outcome.

Primary nonadherence to medication and its drivers in Poland: findings from the electronic prescription pilot analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Primary nonadherence to medication occurs when a patient does not fill a prescription and often leads to suboptimal patient outcomes, lost productivity, and increased net costs. Pilot introduction of electronic prescriptions (e­prescriptions) in Poland took place in 2018, enabling nationwide assessment of primary nonadherence. OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and drivers of primary nonadherence in Poland. METHODS: This retrospective analysis included data from all e­prescriptions issued in Poland in 2018. Primary nonadherence was defined as not filling a prescription within 1 month from the date of issuing. RESULTS: Out of all 119 880 e­prescriptions issued in Poland in 2018, 94 913 were filled, thus the primary nonadherence rate reached 20.8%. Although no differences in primary nonadherence were observed between sexes, age was found to have a significant effect, with older groups showing lower rates of primary nonadherence. In addition, slightly lower rates of primary nonadherence (17.0%) were found for e­prescriptions issued for selected drugs of key importance (n = 47 492). Multivariable analysis performed within this subset showed that those aged ≥75 years had the lowest odds for nonadherence (odds ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.48-0.64). Differences in primary nonadherence rates were observed across therapeutic areas (lowest value in antibiotics, 14.3%), drug classes (lowest value in sulfonylureas, 13.2%), and individual drugs. Primary nonadherence rates were lower for drugs covered by the "Leki 75+" program, which makes them free of charge for those aged 75 years or older. CONCLUSIONS: A high percentage of prescriptions issued in Poland are never filled. E­prescriptions allow the identification and analysis of drivers of this phenomenon. Our findings may help designing national health and medicine policies.