The Health & Territory Research (HTR) research group at the University of Seville is developing the REUMAVID survey (Evaluation of the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rheumatic Patients in Spain), promoted by the Spanish Coordinator of Spondyloarthritis Associations (CEADE), in collaboration with the Galician Rheumatology League, the Catalan Rheumatology League, the Spanish Patients’ Forum and health specialists (more entities are expected to join in the coming days).
This initiative aims to generate evidence on the devastating consequences that this terrible COVID-19 pandemic is having on rheumatic patients, so that in the future we will be better prepared to provide a coordinated response according to real needs.
The spread and current evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has forced the Spanish government to adopt a series of measures, such as the declaration of a state of alarm, aimed at curbing the spread of the virus and reducing the burden of care in hospitals. These unprecedented measures are having a great impact on the lives of citizens from various points of view, both health, socioeconomic and environmental, affecting certain groups such as the elderly and those with previous pathology in an unequal manner. In response to the demand for information on the situation, the Spanish Society of Rheumatology has issued a report on the impact of COVID-19 on patients with rheumatic diseases1 . 1 Similarly, there are various projects underway that aim to evaluate the situation of rheumatic patients infected with COVID-19, such as the EULAR database,2 although they focus exclusively on the clinical and pharmacological setting and on patients who have contracted the virus.
Despite the need and usefulness of such epidemiological information on rheumatic patients who have contracted the virus, there is a lack of information to understand the current situation of rheumatic patients as a whole, whether or not infected with COVID-19, but who are suffering in one way or another from the consequences of this alarming situation. Such an assessment requires holistic, interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to better understand how rheumatic patients are coping with the confinement and the response being provided to them.
The aim of the REUMAVID project is to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on disease progression, care, quality of life and emotional well-being of people with rheumatic diseases in Spain. Aspects related to the current situation of confinement and pandemic, focusing on family aspects, the interaction with the outside world, the impact on the work situation, the support provided by patient associations, the difficulties or impossibility to be attended or to access pharmacological treatments, the impossibility to receive rehabilitative therapies or psychological care, the impact on health, as well as the fears and hopes about this situation in relation to our disease.
Only through this integrative perspective will it be possible to understand the true effects and consequences that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the rheumatic patient community and how they are coping with the current situation.
Based on the current situation and the experience accumulated in recent years by CEADE and the University of Seville3 , the REUMAVID questionnaire for patients with rheumatic diseases has been prepared, which considers all these aspects that matter to patients in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequences that this pandemic is causing in Spain and, in particular, in the daily lives of patients with rheumatic diseases make this a unique moment to be investigated and analyzed from an interdisciplinary, holistic and integrative perspective. The results achieved by this study will be published in a scientific report that will give a voice to the rheumatic patient in a delicate and particularly difficult situation such as the current one.
- SER (2020). COVID-19 coronavirus and patients with rheumatic diseases. Available at: https://www.ser.es/el-coronavirus-covid-19-y-los-pacientes-con-enfermedades-reumaticas/
- EULAR (2020). EULAR – COVID-19 Database. Available at: https://www.eular.org/eular_covid19_database.cfm
- CEADE – Garrido Cumbrera M, Gálvez Ruiz D, Chacón García J, et al. Atlas of axial spondyloarthritis in Spain 2017. Profile of the disease. Max Weber Institute 2017. Available at: https://www.espondiloartritisaxial.org/atlas/
