Anxiety and behavioral changes in Japanese patients with inflammatory bowel disease due to COVID-19 pandemic: a national survey.
J Gastroenterol
; 58(3): 205-216, 2023 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36607399
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Given the increasing health concerns for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigated the impact of the pandemic on the anxiety and behavioral changes in Japanese patients with IBD.METHODS:
We analyzed 3032 questionnaires from patients with IBD, aged 16 years or older visiting 30 hospitals and 1 clinic between March 2020 and June 2021. The primary outcome was the score of the anxiety experienced by patients with IBD during the pandemic.RESULTS:
Participants reported a median age of 44 years; 43.3% of the patients were women. Moreover, 60.6% and 39.4% were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, respectively, with a median disease duration of 10 years. Participants indicated an average of disease-related anxiety score of 5.1 ± 2.5 on a ten-point scale, with a tendency to increase, 1 month after the number of infected persons per population increased. The top three causes for anxiety were the risk of contracting COVID-19 during hospital visits, SARS-CoV-2 infection due to IBD, and infection by IBD medication. Factors associated with anxiety were gender (women), being a homemaker, hospital visit timings, mode of transportation (train), use of immunosuppressive drugs, and nutritional therapy. Most patients continued attending their scheduled hospital visits, taking their medications, experienced the need for a family doctor, and sought guidance and information regarding COVID-19 from primary doctors, television, and Internet news.CONCLUSIONS:
Patients with IBD experienced moderate disease-related anxiety due to the pandemic and should be proactively informed about infectious diseases to relieve their anxiety.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Guideline
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
J Gastroenterol
Journal subject:
GASTROENTEROLOGIA
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Japón