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Título

Fibromyalgia Impact Worsened During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Resumo

Introduction: Pain is an unpleasant experience modulated by sensorial, emotional, cognitive and social components. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome whose manifestation is influenced by these factors that were aggravated in the context of fear, uncertainty and restrictions of COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate if the impact of fibromyalgia worsened during this period.
Methods: This is a longitudinal retrospective analysis of the database of Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR) scores collected in the visits in the Fibromyalgia Outpatient Clinic of Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade Federal do Paraná (HC-UFPR) in Curitiba , Brazil. Two analytical approaches were done. The analysis of monthly evolution of FIQR medians indicates the pattern of disease manifestation during pandemic in the months of pandemic and compared to the months of three previous years. The hypothesis testing if there was an intrinsic variation of the parameter was done in an analysis of four periods between March, 16 and March, 15 of the following year.
Results: In descriptive analysis of monthly variation of FIQR median, registers of 326 patients were analysed, and a worsening of this parameter was observed after March, 2020, when the pandemic was officially declared in Curitiba. This trend was also observed in November, 2020 when COVID-19 epidemiologic indices worsened again in Paraná State. 22 patients were included in hypothesis testing if there was a FIQR score variation in pandemic compared to previous periods, a p-value <0.05 was observed only in comparison to 19-20 (p=0.026). In comparison to 17-18 and 18-19, the p-values obtained were 0.101 e 0.065, respectively. However, the confidence interval analysis demonstrated a trend of relative worsening of FIQR scores in pandemic comparing to all previous periods: 17-18 (CI 95% = [-1.55; + 13.48]), 18-19 (CI 95% = [-0.48; +12.36]) and 19-20 (CI 95% = [+0.97; +16.25]).
Conclusion: This retrospective analysis of FIQR scores registers collected in HC-UFPR can indicate a trend of worsening of fibromyalgia impact in life of patients during the pandemic compared to previous periods.

Palavras Chave

pain, fibromyalgia, COVID-19, pandemic