• Halil Ibrahim Tuna, Guler Balci Alparslan, and Sema Yilmaz.
• Selcuk University, Nursing Department, Konya, Turkey. Electronic address: tunameister@gmail.com.
• Pain Manag Nurs. 2022 Feb 1; 23 (1): 434743-47.

BackgroundAim: The aim of this study is to determine the symptoms, pain, and function changes experienced by rheumatoid arthritis patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodThis descriptive study was completed with a total of 119 patients from the rheumatology clinic of a university hospital who met the follow-up research criteria and agreed to participate in the study. Descriptive features question form, pandemic period disease characteristics form, and Visual Analogue Scale were used to collect data.ResultsThe mean age of the patients was 48.53 ± 10.24, the duration of the disease was 69.63 ± 37.02 months, the average visual analog scale values before the pandemic period were 3.77 ± 1.40, while the average visual analog scale values during the pandemic period were 5.02 ± 1.57. The most common patient complaints were hygiene problems (p < .001), dressing problems (p < .001), and nutritional problems (p < .001) due to increased pain during the pandemic period. It was determined that the patients needed a health care professional for self-care (p < .001), injections (p < .001), and pain management (p < .001) during the pandemic period.ConclusionsDuring the pandemic period, patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) stated that they needed the support of a health care professional for self-care, injections, and pain management.Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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