• Félicie Costantino, Léa Bahier, Luis Coronel Tarancón, Ariane Leboime, François Vidal, Lamouri Bessalah, Maxime Breban, and Maria-Antonietta D'Agostino.
• Inserm U1173, Infection et inflammation, Laboratory of Excellence INFLAMEX, Université Paris-Saclay, UVSQ, Montigny-Le-Bretonneux, France; Rheumatology Department, AP-HP, Ambroise Paré Hospital, 9, avenue Charles-de-Gaulle, 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
• Joint Bone Spine. 2021 Jan 1; 88 (1): 105095.

ObjectiveTo explore how patients with chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases (CIRDs) coped with their disease during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify possible predictive factors of SARS-CoV-2 infection in this population.MethodsPatients followed in a single rheumatology department in France or registered on the Spondy+ platform, a secure e-health platform for spondyloarthritis patients, were invited to complete a questionnaire focused on their experiences around COVID19 symptoms, testing and medications access during the lockdown period. Descriptive statistics were used to report questionnaire's results. Factors associated with COVID-19 or with treatment discontinuation were assessed by logistic regression.ResultsWe obtained 655 answers from the 2,081 contacted patients: 474 with spondyloarthritis, 129 with rheumatoid arthritis and 52 with psoriatic arthritis. The population was predominantly female (61.8%) with a mean age of 51.0±13.4 years. Incidence of COVID-19 was 6.9% (95%CI: 5.1-9.2%), including 12 confirmed and 33 highly suspicious cases. No death was observed and five patients needed to be hospitalized. Factors independently associated with an increased risk of infection were SARS-CoV-2 exposure, younger age and non-smoking. More than 30% of the patients suspended or decreased the dosage of one of their drugs during the lockdown period. This was followed in 63.4% of them by increased disease activity. Modifications were mostly motivated by fear of contagion (79.3%).ConclusionWe did not observe any increase of incidence or severity of COVID-19 in patients suffering of the 3 most common CIRDs. This survey also adds evidence of the safety of anti-rheumatic drugs use regarding COVID-19.Copyright © 2020 Société française de rhumatologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

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