The National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition is a national reference center for rheumatic diseases that belongs to The National Institutes of Health, and has Federal founding. More than 8,000 patients with a wide variety of rheumatologic diagnosis receive medical care. On March 2020, the WHO announced COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. The first case was registered in Mexico on February 2020. In March 2020, the Mexican Government requested that our Institution should restrict health care to exclusively COVID-19 patients; accordingly, outpatient consultations were, and up to August 2020 still, hold on. Meanwhile, when possible, the Department of Immunology and Rheumatology has implemented an "on-demand", non-organized patient´s health care, through email and phone contact; nonetheless, and due to the middle-low socioeconomic status of most of our patients and limited technical resources available at our Institution, the attempt has been challenging.
The aim objective of this project is to explore patients perception about access to medical
care and to medications, access to communication with their primary rheumatologist and
patients risk perception about COVID-19 disease, for this a survey directed (questionnaire
locally developed) will apply and to explore how the reintegration at the usual medical care
has a positive impact in the patient´s disease activity, patient´s quality of life and
psychopathology (depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress).
Other: COVID-19 survey
A questionnaire locally developed to explore access to medical care and to medications, access to communication with their primary rheumatologist, and patients risk perception about COVID-19 disease
Other: RAPID-3
The instrument measures function, pain, and patient global estimate of status, with correspond to activity disease
Other: WHOQOL-BREF
The instrument measures the patient´s quality of life (4 dimensions: physics, phycological, social, and environment)
Other: DASS-21 instrument (depression and anxiety)
The instrument measures the presence of depression and anxiety
Other: IER-R (posttraumatic stress)
The instrument measures the presence of posttraumatic stress
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients with a rheumatic disease diagnosis according to their primary rheumatologist
who agree to participate
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patients with a not confirmed rheumatic disease
- Patients lost to follow-up from the outpatient for > 1 year period
- Patients with pregnancy plans
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán
Mexico City, Tlalpan, Mexico
Virginia Pascual-Ramos, Dr., Principal Investigator
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran