Clinical impact of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with fibromyalgia: a cohort study

Abstract

Objective. To our knowledge, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fibromyalgia (FM) patients has not been studied before. FM patients often experience clinical impairment with stress. The aim of this study was to determine whether severity of FM increases because of confinement by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. This prospective study includes patients from the Combined Index of Severity of Fibromyalgia (ICAF) cohort who met the 2010 ACR FM criteria. In this cohort, all patients have a periodical evaluation of their quality of life through two questionnaires, the ICAF, which assesses the ability to perform daily living activities, anxiety and depression, and through the Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC), which assesses overall change after a therapeutical intervention. Pre-and post-confinement measurements were analysed. Inferential statistical analysis and ANOVA for repeated measurements were used. Results. A total of 93 patients received a phone consultation, (95.5% females), mean (SD) age of 48.23 (8.38) years. Four patients were excluded as presenting COVID-19 and 51 (57%) completed the post-confinement ICAF. Following confinement, 25 (49%) patients got worse (group-worse) and 26 (51%) patients experienced no change or improved (group-stable). Comparisons between pre-and post-confinement ICAF did not show significant differences in both groups. Passive coping was significantly different in groupworse in pre-confinement evaluation. In the 80% of patients with passive coping predominance there were no changes in coping strategy. Conclusion. No clinical impairment due to COVID-19 confinement oc-curred. The perceived worsening among FM patients relies primarily on how patients cope with their disease, without a real impact on clinical manifestations.

A Cross-Sectional Study of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Previously Diagnosed Patients With Fibromyalgia

“…In the current study, the majority of participants were female (approximately 75%) and in the age group of 20-40 years, which correlates with the data on fibromyalgia, as this illness has a female preponderance [7,8,[13][14][15]; however, the age group in the index study is a near-decade younger in contrast to various studies [7,[13][14][15]. Nearly half of the participants were graduates or equivalent (college-going) in the current study, similar to the study by Aloush et al (2021) [7].…”

“…Among 57 participants who continued treatment, approximately 65% of participants had no improvement or deterioration on the comprehensive objective assessment by FIQR, which means an aggregative score of function, overall impact, and symptoms for the last seven days, which is in consonance with other studies [9,15]. The reason for this is that even despite pharmacological treatment, there are other modalities of treatment that were hampered during the lockdown, and COVID-19 itself had psychological effects on the general population.…”

A better but persistently low health status in women with fibromyalgia during the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional data analysis

“…There were earlier studies indicating that mental and physical health, such as reflected in fibromyalgia severity scores, was not worse [ 8 , 10 , 11 ] and perhaps even better [ 12 ] during than before the pandemic. Only one study observed a lower health during the pandemic [ 9 ].…”

“…In a qualitative study, next to exacerbation of pain and fatigue, patients also reported better quality of life [ 7 ]. In longitudinal studies [ 8 – 11 ] with assessments before and during the pandemic or comparing a sample during the pandemic with a historic pre-pandemic sample [ 12 ], self-reported health of patients with fibromyalgia did not differ before, during or after the lockdown [ 8 , 10 , 11 ]. In one study, worse health during the lockdown [ 9 ] was indicated, but in another study, health improved [ 12 ].…”

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental and physical wellbeing in women with fibromyalgia: a longitudinal mixed-methods study

“…The authors attributed the perceived worsening to the patient's coping styles [31]. Colas et al found that the pandemic-related lockdown exacerbated symptoms of fibromyalgia, but lifestyle adjustments to fluctuations of these symptoms overall allowed for a better quality of life [32]. This finding might serve as an explanation for the conflicting reports of previous studies regarding FM impact.…”