Ann Pulmonary Respir Med | Volume 1, Issue 1 | Research Article | Open Access

Shifting to Telemedicine Practice during COVID-19 Lockdown Days: Impact on Chronic Disease Patients

Aby Paul, Joel Joby Joseph, Sanjo Saijan, Jude James, Stelvin Sebastian, Basil John, Edwin Antony and Jobin Kunjumon Vilapurathu

Nirmala College of Pharmacy, Muvattupuzha, Ernakulam, Kerala, India

*Correspondance to: Aby Paul 

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Abstract

The long lockdown and persisting fear of COVID-19 vulnerabilities of chronic disease patients had severely affected their normal treatment and physician visit cycles. This situation demanded an up rise and practice of the concept of telemedicine. The objective was to analyze the impact of telemedicine among chronic disease patients using a self-reporting numerical rating scale. A cross sectional comparative survey was designed to assess the impact of telemedicine during lockdown days among the chronic disease patients by using a patient self-reported numerical rating scale. An anonymous online questionnaire was used to obtain the patient responses. A snowball sampling strategy was adopted to recruit patients into the study. Questionnaire was disseminated through social media and the obtained responses were analyzed. A total of 299 respondents willingly took up and completed the survey questionnaire. Among the 299 patients who participated in the study, 43.84% had more than one chronic disease, of these 142 (37.17%) patients had autoimmune rheumatic diseases. All patients reported outcomes were better among patients who utilized the telemedicine service than patients who did not had access to the same. The patient reported outcomes related to the overall well-being of the patients in the telemedicine group were 6.515 ± 2.472. The patients who had no access to the telemedicine services reported to have overall well-being score of 7.166 ± 2.548. Telemedicine is one of the best available to promote health care and the practice of telemedicine was also associated with better patient reported outcomes and quality of life.

Keywords:

Telemedicine; COVID-19; Chronic disease; Lockdown

Citation:

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