Factors associated with fears due to COVID-19: A Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN) COVID-19 cohort study

Yin Wu; Linda Kwakkenbos; Richard S Henry; Marie-Eve Carrier; Maria Gagarine; Sami Harb; Angelica Bourgeault; Lydia Tao; Andrea Carboni-Jiménez; Zelalem Negeri; Scott Patten; Susan J Bartlett; Luc Mouthon; John Varga; Andrea Benedetti; Brett D Thombs; SPIN Patient Advisors; SPIN Investigators

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110314

Factors associated with fears due to COVID-19: A Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN) COVID-19 cohort study

J Psychosom Res. 2021 Jan:140:110314. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110314. Epub 2020 Nov 25.

Authors

Yin Wu¹, Linda Kwakkenbos², Richard S Henry¹, Marie-Eve Carrier³, Maria Gagarine⁴, Sami Harb¹, Angelica Bourgeault³, Lydia Tao³, Andrea Carboni-Jiménez¹, Zelalem Negeri⁴, Scott Patten⁵, Susan J Bartlett⁶, Luc Mouthon⁷, John Varga⁸, Andrea Benedetti⁹, Brett D Thombs¹⁰; SPIN Patient Advisors; SPIN Investigators

Collaborators

Catherine Fortuné¹¹, Amy Gietzen¹², Geneviève Guillot¹³, Nancy Lewis¹⁴, Michelle Richard¹⁵, Maureen Sauvé¹¹, Joep Welling¹⁶, Kim Fligelstone¹⁷, Karen Gottesman¹², Catarina Leite¹⁸, Elisabet Pérez¹⁹, Murray Baron²⁰, Vanessa Malcarne²¹, Maureen D Mayes²², Warren R Nielson²³, Robert Riggs²¹, Shervin Assassi²², Carolyn Ells²⁰, Cornelia van den Ende²⁴, Tracy Frech²⁵, Daphna Harel²⁶, Monique Hinchcliff²⁷, Marie Hudson²⁰, Sindhu R Johnson²⁸, Maggie Larche²⁹, Christelle Nguyen³⁰, Janet Pope³¹, François Rannou³², Tatiana Sofia Rodriguez Reyna³³, Anne A Schouffoer³⁴, Maria E Suarez-Almazor³⁵, Christian Agard³⁶, Alexandra Albert³⁷, Elana J Bernstein³⁸, Sabine Berthier³⁶, Lyne Bissonnette³⁹, Alessandra Bruns³⁹, Patricia Carreira⁴⁰, Benjamin Chaigne⁴¹, Lorinda Chung⁴², Chase Correia⁴³, Christopher Denton⁴⁴, Robyn Domsic⁴⁵, James V Dunne⁴⁶, Bertrand Dunogue⁴¹, Dominique Farge-Bancel⁴¹, Paul R Fortin⁴⁷, Jessica Gordon⁴⁸, Brigitte Granel-Rey⁴⁹, Pierre-Yves Hatron⁵⁰, Ariane L Herrick⁵¹, Sabrina Hoa⁵², Niall Jones⁵³, Artur Jose de B Fernandes³⁹, Suzanne Kafaja⁵⁴, Nader Khalidi²⁹, David Launay⁵⁰, Joanne Manning⁵⁵, Isabelle Marie⁵⁶, Maria Martin⁵⁷, Arsene Mekinian⁴¹, Sheila Melchor⁴⁰, Mandana Nikpour⁵⁸, Louis Olagne³⁶, Susanna Proudman⁵⁹, Alexis Régent⁴¹, Sébastien Rivière⁴¹, David Robinson⁶⁰, Esther Rodriguez⁴⁰, Sophie Roux³⁹, Vincent Sobanski⁵⁰, Virginia Steen⁶¹, Evelyn Sutton⁶², Carter Thorne⁶³, Pearce Wilcox⁴⁶, Mara Cañedo Ayala⁶⁴, Andrea Carboni-Jiménez⁶⁴, Maria Gagarine⁶⁴, Julia Nordlund⁶⁴, Nora Østbø⁶⁴, Danielle B Rice⁶⁴, Kimberly A Turner⁶⁴, Nicole Culos-Reed⁶⁵, Laura Dyas⁶⁶, Ghassan El-Baalbaki⁶⁷, Shannon Hebblethwaite⁶⁸, Laura Bustamante⁶⁸, Delaney Duchek⁶⁵, Kelsey Ellis⁶⁵

Affiliations

¹ Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
² Department of Clinical Psychology, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
³ Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁴ Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁵ Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; O'Brien Institute for Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁶ Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁷ Université Paris Descartes, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France; Service de Médecine Interne, Centre de Reference Maladies Systémiques Autoimmunes Rares d'Ile de France, Hôpital Cochin, Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France.
⁸ Northwestern Scleroderma Program. Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹⁰ Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Biomedical Ethics Unit, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹¹ Scleroderma Society of Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
¹² Scleroderma Foundation, Tri-State Chapter, Binghamton, NY, USA.
¹³ Sclérodermie Québec, Longueuil, Quebec, Canada.
¹⁴ Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁵ Scleroderma Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
¹⁶ NVLE Dutch Patient Organization for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
¹⁷ Scleroderma & Raynaud's UK, London, United Kingdom.
¹⁸ University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
¹⁹ Asociación Española de Esclerodermia, Madrid, Spain.
²⁰ McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
²¹ San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.
²² University of Texas McGovern School of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
²³ St. Joseph's Health Care, London, ON, Canada.
²⁴ Sint Maartenskliniek, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
²⁵ University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
²⁶ New York University, New York, New York, USA.
²⁷ Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
²⁸ Toronto Scleroderma Program, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
²⁹ McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
³⁰ Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France; Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Cochin, Paris, France.
³¹ University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
³² Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France.
³³ Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexico City, Mexico.
³⁴ Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
³⁵ University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
³⁶ Centre Hospitalier Universitaire - Hôtel-Dieu de Nantes, Nantes, France.
³⁷ Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec, Canada.
³⁸ Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
³⁹ Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
⁴⁰ Servicio de Reumatologia del Hospital, 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain.
⁴¹ Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Cochin, Paris, France.
⁴² Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁴³ Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁴⁴ Royal Free London Hospital, London, UK.
⁴⁵ University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁴⁶ St. Paul's Hospital and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁴⁷ CHU de Québec - Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec, Canada.
⁴⁸ Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City, NY, USA.
⁴⁹ Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Cochin, Paris, France; Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
⁵⁰ Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Lille, Hôpital Claude Huriez, Lille, France.
⁵¹ University of Manchester, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK.
⁵² Centre hospitalier de l'université de Montréal - CHUM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁵³ University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
⁵⁴ University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵⁵ Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK.
⁵⁶ CHU Rouen, Hôpital de Bois-Guillaume, Rouen, France.
⁵⁷ Servicio de Reumatologia del Hospital, 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain; François Maurier, Hôpitaux Privés de Metz, Hôpital Belle-Isle, Metz, France.
⁵⁸ St Vincent's Hospital and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁵⁹ Royal Adelaide Hospital and University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
⁶⁰ University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
⁶¹ Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
⁶² Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
⁶³ Southlake Regional Health Centre, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.
⁶⁴ Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁶⁵ University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁶⁶ Scleroderma Foundation Michigan Chapter, Southfield, Michigan, USA.
⁶⁷ Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁶⁸ Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Abstract

Introduction: No studies have examined factors associated with fear in any group of people vulnerable during COVID-19 due to pre-existing medical conditions.

Objective: To investigate factors associated with fear of consequences of COVID-19 among people living with a pre-existing medical condition, the autoimmune disease systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma), including country.

Methods: Pre-COVID-19 data from the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN) Cohort were linked to COVID-19 data collected in April 2020. Multivariable linear regression was used to assess factors associated with continuous scores of the 10-item COVID-19 Fears Questionnaire for Chronic Medical Conditions, controlling for pre-COVID-19 anxiety symptoms.

Results: Compared to France (N = 156), COVID-19 Fear scores among participants from the United Kingdom (N = 50) were 0.12 SD (95% CI 0.03 to 0.21) higher; scores for Canada (N = 97) and the United States (N = 128) were higher, but not statistically significant. Greater interference of breathing problems was associated with higher fears due to COVID-19 (Standardized regression coefficient = 0.12, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.23). Participants with higher financial resources adequacy scores had lower COVID-19 Fear scores (Standardized coefficient = -0.18, 95% CI -0.28 to -0.09).

Conclusions: Fears due to COVID-19 were associated with clinical and functional vulnerabilities in this chronically ill population. This suggests that interventions may benefit from addressing specific clinical issues that apply to specific populations. Financial resources, health policies and political influences may also be important. The needs of people living with chronic illness during a pandemic may differ depending on the social and political context in which they live.

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; Chronic medical condition; Fear; Mental health; Scleroderma; Systemic sclerosis.

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
COVID-19 / epidemiology
COVID-19 / psychology*
Canada / epidemiology
Chronic Disease
Cohort Studies
Fear*
Female
France / epidemiology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Patient-Centered Care
Risk Factors
Scleroderma, Systemic / therapy*
Surveys and Questionnaires
United Kingdom / epidemiology
United States / epidemiology

Abstract

MeSH terms

Grants and funding