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The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on rheumatic disease patients’ satisfaction with access to medical services

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Abstract

The COVID-19 hurt various lifestyle aspects, especially the treatment and follow-up of patients with chronic diseases such as autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (RD). The new circumstances changed the frequency of medical examinations and the way patients with rheumatic diseases are followed up. The objective is to study the impact of COVID-19 on RD patients’ satisfaction with access to medical services. A national multicenter observational cross-sectional anonymous online survey was conducted on patients with RD using a specially developed web-based platform and structured questionnaire https://rheumatologycovid19.bg/. The study was carried out with the support of intra-university project №6/2022 MU—Plovdiv. 1288 patients participated, with an average age of 47.03 (SD ± 12.80 years), of whom 992 (81.6%) were women. The questionnaire contained 41 questions grouped into 5 panels. Descriptive statistics were used—mean, alternative analysis, logistic regression and Decision Tree using the CRT (classification and regression trees) method. The study found that RD patients’ satisfaction with access to medical services was influenced by communication type and the frequency of visits to the rheumatologist, difficulties in prescribing and finding medicines and the presence of comorbidities. The likelihood of patients’ satisfaction with their rheumatologist was 5.5 and 3 times higher for in-person and other means of communication, respectively, compared to those without any communication. The relative share of patients who communicated by phone was larger (59%) compared to pre-pandemic (41%), where direct contact with the physician prevailed (80%). The results of the study confirmed the need to optimize remote access to medical care for patients with RD during the pandemic.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [RD].

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the Medical University Plovdiv for funding the project. Many thanks to all participants for agreeing to participate on a voluntary basis.

Funding

The study was financed and implemented with support from the intra-university project for personalized medicine and digitalization in healthcare (PMD) №6/2022 from the Medical University of Plovdiv. All the authors declare no competing financial or non-financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Propaedeutics of Internal Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Clinic of Rheumatology, UMHAT “Kaspela”, Medical University of Plovdiv, 64 Sofia Str, Plovdiv, 4002, Bulgaria

    Aleksandar Marinkov, Rositsa Karalilova, Dimitar Bahariev, Konstantin Batalov, Velichka Popova, Zguro Batalov & Anastas Batalov

  2. Department of Health Management and Health Economics, Faculty of Public Health, Medical University of Plovdiv, Plovdiv, 4002, Bulgaria

    Rositsa Dimova

  3. Department of Applied and Institutional Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy and History, University of Plovdiv Paisiy Hilendarski, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

    Donka Keskinova

  4. Medical University of Plovdiv, Plovdiv, 4002, Bulgaria

    Dimitar Bahariev

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  1. Aleksandar Marinkov
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  2. Rositsa Dimova
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  3. Rositsa Karalilova
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Contributions

AM, AB, RK and RD contributed to study conception and design, data collection, data interpretation and manuscript preparation. AM and RD contributed to writing and analytical design. KB, ZB and VP contributed to gathering of the data and writing. RD contributed to data interpretation and manuscript preparation. DK contributed to data analysis and data interpretation. DB contributed to translation of the manuscript in the English language. All the co-authors read and approved the final manuscript. All the co-authors take full responsibility for the integrity of all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rositsa Dimova.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Ethical approval

This study had the approval of the Committee on Scientific Ethics from the Medical University of Plovdiv (Protocol №2/09.03.2021). The article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Marinkov, A., Dimova, R., Karalilova, R. et al. The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on rheumatic disease patients’ satisfaction with access to medical services. Rheumatol Int 44, 157–164 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-023-05413-3

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