Perception of the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the Time of Telemedicine: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study

Abstract

Background: After the COVID-19 outbreak, the Italian Government stopped most regular health care activity. As a result, patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) had limited access to outpatient clinics and hospitals.

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the perception of the COVID-19 emergency among patients with IBD during the early weeks of the lockdown.

Methods: We invited adult patients with IBD from the University of Salerno (Campania, South Italy) and the University of Padua (Veneto, North Italy) by email to answer an ad hoc anonymous survey about COVID-19. We also collected data on demographic and disease characteristics.

Results: In total, 167 patients with IBD from Padua and 83 patients from Salerno answered the survey (age: mean 39.7 years, SD 13.9 years; female: n=116, 46.4%). We found that patients with IBD were particularly worried about the COVID-19 pandemic (enough: 77/250, 30.8%; much/very much: 140/250, 56.0%), as they felt more vulnerable to COVID-19 due to their condition (enough: 70/250, 28.0%; much/very much: 109/250, 43.6%). Patients with IBD from the red zone of Veneto were more worried than patients from Campania (P=.001), and men felt more susceptible to the virus than women (P=.05). Additionally, remote medicine was appreciated more by younger patients than older patients (P=.04).

Conclusions: The results of our survey demonstrate that the lockdown had a significant impact on the psychological aspects of patients with IBD and suggest the need for increasing communication with patients with IBD (eg, through telemedicine) to ensure patients receive adequate health care, correct information, and proper psychological support.

Keywords: COVID-19; Crohn disease; IBD; biologic agents; perception; survey; telemedicine; ulcerative colitis.