ABSTRACT
Objectives: To assess the impact of the lockdown during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote monitoring on patients’ health statusand daily maintenance therapy in a middle-income resource setting.Methods: During the first wave of the pandemic period, we changed fromregular clinic visits to telephone visit calls to monitor our patients’ healthcondition and adherence to physiotherapy and physical exercise. We alsocompared their weight and FEV1 before and after lockdown.Results: A total of 120 patients or their parents have been contacted bytelephone call visits over a 10-week period. During this period, 38 patients(28.33%) were identified to have pulmonary exacerbation;89.5% wereprescribed oral antibiotics, and 3% were hospitalised to get IV antibiotics.Moreover, 8% of the patients presented other CF complications. Most of thepatients (95%) did not change the frequency of the daily physiotherapy theyused to perform independently. However, only 27% continued performingassisted physiotherapy with a physiotherapist. Moreover, 71% of thepatients who performed regular physical exercise changed the frequencyand the type of exercise during the quarantine period. Furthermore, meanFEV1 and body weight increased significantly after the lockdown period.The mean FEV1% increased significantly over the 4-month quarantineperiod (mean, 95% Confidence Interval ΔFEV1 (3.19;0.36–6.02), p = 0.028;while the mean weight increased significantly;mean, 95% ConfidenceInterval ΔWeight, kg (1.0;0.61–1.4);p < 0.0001.Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation oftelephone contact processes aiming for CF patients’ appropriate care is ofgreat importance. Further studies are needed to evaluate patient outcomeswhen transitioning from face-to-face clinics to telemedicine clinics