AN INTERNATIONAL STUDY ON WELL-BEING OF PATIENTS WITH GASTROINTESTINAL DISORDERS DURING THE COVID19 PANDEMIC

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The COVID19 pandemic has been primarily mitigated with behavioralstrategies such as social distancing, mask wearing, increased hand washing, and stay athome orders. Negative consequences were increased isolation, lack of access to medicalservices, medication shortages, and scarcity of daily necessities;all of which can lead toadverse mental health consequences. The aim of the current international study was todescribe the effect of the pandemic on the well-being of people with gastrointestinal (GI)diseases. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, participants were recruited through socialmedia ads, posted by patient organizations, opinion leaders, and the authors from May toOctober 2020, and asked to complete online surveys. Psychological distress was measuredwith the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), GI symptoms with the GastrointestinalSymptoms Rating Scale (GSRS), and quality of life (QoL) with the World Health OrganizationQuality of Life scale (WHOQOL). All questionnaires were in English and answered byEnglish speakers only. Three separate regressions were run with psychosocial distress, QoL,and GI symptoms as dependent variables and self-reported impacts of the pandemic on GIdisease as the independent variables. All models controlled for gender and self-reported prepandemiclevels of the dependent variables. RESULTS: 831 people participated from 22countries (top five were 37.7% England, 12.2% Australia, 9.5% Poland, 8.3% New Zealand,7.6% USA). Mean age was 49.3 years;82.3% female. The most common GI conditions wereinflammatory bowel disease (38.4%), celiac disease (33.6%), and irritable bowel syndrome(31.4%). Table 1 shows the self-reported impact of the pandemic on aspects of care fortheir GI condition(s). Table 2 shows significant correlations between all these challengesand ratings of psychosocial distress, GI symptoms, and QoL. Regression analyses indicatedthat increased GI symptoms during the pandemic (R2= 0.65) were associated with increaseddifficulties relayted to managing GI disease (ß=0.133, p=0.009), appointments with primarycare doctor (ß=0.152, p=0.013), and diet adherence (ß=0.143, p=0.016). Decreased QoLduring the pandemic (R2= 0.60) was associated with perceived difficulties in accessing toiletpaper (ß=-2.611, p=0.010). None of the variables were associated with psychological distressafter controlling for pre-pandemic levels. CONCLUSION: COVID19 pandemic is affectingGI patients by restricting access to care, medications, toilet paper, and usual diet. Qualityof life and GI symptoms were associated with these challenges, but no effect was found formental health. These findings indicate that the COVID19 pandemic is having adverse impactson GI patients that should be mitigated with future appropriate planning and preventionstrategies.(Table Presented) (Table Presented)