La ricerca “L’effetto del Covid-19 sulla salute mentale delle persone con malattie reumatiche” ha vinto il premio come miglior abstract nella categoria associazioni pazienti. La ricerca è stata presentata da Serena Mingolla, autrice insieme a Matteo Santopietro e Antonella Celano.
Apmarr è orgogliosa di annunciare la vittoria di un prestigioso premio nell’ambito del Congresso EULAR 2021: in data 2 giugno la ricerca “L’effetto del Covid-19 sulla salute mentale delle persone con malattie reumatiche. Dai dati agli interventi” è stata premiata come miglior abstract nella categoria associazioni pazienti!
Serena Mingolla, principale autrice della ricerca assieme a Matteo Santopietro di WeResearch e Antonella Celano, presidente Apmarr, è stata premiata durante la prima giornata del congresso EULAR, e ha poi presentato la ricerca durante la sessione pomeridiana. Apmarr è stata l’unica associazione premiata durante il congresso EULAR per la categoria, e il nostro rappresenta quindi anche l’unico premio a essere vinto dall’Italia nella categoria riservata alle associazioni pazienti
Questa vittoria corona l’impegno profuso da Apmarr nell’analizzare l’impatto del Covid-19 sulle condizioni di salute mentale delle persone con malattie reumatologiche e proporre attività e soluzioni mirate a contrastare gli effetti negativi della pandemia, non facendo mai mancare il proprio supporto anche in questo drammatico periodo.
Desideriamo ringraziare calorosamente Serena Mingolla e Matteo Santopietro per la grande rofessionalità e gli ottimi risultati conseguiti. Ecco l’abstract originale della ricerca:
2APMARR APS, National Association of People with Rheumatic and Rare Diseases, Lecce, Italy
3WeResearch, Ricerche di Marketing, Milan, Italy
Background: Covid-19 has had an important impact on the mental health conditions of over 5 million Italians suffering from one of the over 150 rheumatic diseases. In order to understand the psychological impact of the Covid-19 emergency and the restrictions imposed to counter it, the Italian National Association of People with Rheumatic and Rare Diseases – APMARR APS launched the research “Living with a rheumatic pathology”.
Objectives: Gather data directly from Italian patients about the impact of the COVID-19 and consequent restrictions on their mental health and feelings; evaluate the most effective intervention to be implemented to face the pandemic by Patients organization.
Methods: A qualitative-quantitative survey was carried out through a questionnaire administered throughout the national territory to a sample of N = 1,001 people. The people invited to complete the questionnaire were women (55,9%) and men (44,1%), aged 18-85 years (age 18-41=26,7%; age 42-65=64%; age >65=9,3%) with at least one rheumatic pathology. The questionnaire was made up of 39 questions, of which 29 were closed and 10 were open. For the administration of the questionnaires, the CAWI (Computer Aided Web Interview) methodology of on-line survey was used. The 1,001 interviews were carried out from 7 to 14 August 2020.
Results: More than 4 out of 10 people (total sample 44.2%; male 60%, female 35,7%; age 18-41=39,1%; age 42-65=45,9%; age >65 = 50%) declared that the emergency period has somehow caused a worsening of their health condition. People declared that the deterioration of their health is due to the emergency period for the following reasons: 1) Psychological: such as stress and anxiety: “Too much stress and anxiety made the symptoms worse.”; “The stress of the quarantine affected my problem”; “Insomnia. Nervousness. General ailments. Depression. Strong stress” 2) Inability to perform physiotherapy and motor activities due to the lockdown 3) Postponement of examinations, visits and checks 4) remote working, in some cases described as harmful for people’s mental and physical health: “Due to Covid19 I had to do remote working and I worked even 12 hours a day including holidays to the detriment of my family life”. Furthermore, from January 31, 2020 a significant increase emerged in communication problems with rheumatology specialist compared to the period before the emergency due to Covid-19. The sharp increase may be due to the situation of severe psychological stress to which also the doctors were subjected in the emergency phase: people could not find the comfort of being empathically listened to.
Conclusion: The research shows that the most frequent symptoms among people with rheumatic diseases were depression and high levels of anxiety due to strong emotional stress. Psychological malaise caused direct effects in worsening the symptoms of rheumatic disease as well as other related effects, for example, insomnia. The forced isolation due to the lockdown has made people lack the social support that is fundamental for the psychological well-being especially for those suffering from some chronic pathology. Starting from the data collected, APMARR promptly activated a completely free psychological support service with 6 professional psychologists, two of them specialized in emergency psychology. The service is accessible online and is still going on for all who are not able to overcome the anxiety and fear related to the pandemic and its evolution. Thousands of accesses to the service have been measured to date.
REFERENCES:
S Mingolla 1 , A Celano 1 , M Santopietro 2
[1]NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH RHEUMATIC AND RARE DISEASES – APMARR APS
[2]WeResearch. Ricerche di marketing
