Coronaphobia in Rheumatic Diseases

COVID-19 is a contagious respiratory disease that is caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome causing Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The most common symptoms are fever, cough and dyspnoea. Patients with rheumatic diseases are at higher risk of infections because of disease activity and immunosuppression. In addition, old age and having concomitant chronic disease are among risk factors for coronavirus. Therefore, national health services recommend patients to practice self-isolation and self-quarantine.

COVID-19 is a contagious respiratory disease that is caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome causing Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was firstly seen in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and spread rapidly all over the world. World Health Organization (WHO) was declared COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020. The most common symptoms are fever, cough and dyspnoea. Social isolation and staying home have been suggested to reduce the spreading rate of COVID-19 pandemic in many countries. In addition, curfew except necessity was applied in some countries and time of curfew varied by country. Therefore, pandemic caused changes in routine life for millions of people. Patients with rheumatic diseases are at higher risk of infections because of disease activity and immunosuppression. In addition, old age and having concomitant chronic disease are among risk factors for coronavirus. Therefore, national health services recommend patients to practice self-isolation and self-quarantine. However, social isolation was concluded with more increased physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle. The aim of this study is to investigate coronaphobia in rheumatic diseases and compare with healthy people.

Covid-19 Phobia Scale (C19P-S) was developed by Arpaci et al. C19P-S is a self-reported questionnaire consisting of 20 items and four, i.e., psychological, psychosomatic, economic, and social, subscales. All items are rated on a 5-point scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". The total score ranges from 20 to 100 points;,the higher the score, the higher is the level of coronaphobia.

It consists of 14 questions that which 7 of them evaluate depression and 7 of them evaluate anxiety. Each question is scored from 0 to 3 and high scores indicate severe anxiety and depression

Inclusion Criteria: Between the ages of 18 to 65 Have diagnosed with Romatoid Arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Systemic Lupus Erthematosus or Fibromyalgia Exclusion Criteria: Being pregnant Diagnosed with malignancy Had changes of medical treatment in the last 3 months Had dysfunction that limited physical activity such as severe neurological impairment, immobility or cooperation deficits