P2666 - The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Healthcare Utilization and Quality of Life in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients

Amir Ghaffari, MD¹, Filippos Koutroubakis, MD², Claudia Ramos, MD¹, Elyse Johnston, MD², Jeffrey M. Dueker, MD, MPH², Gong Tang, PhD³, Dmitriy Babichenko, PhD³, Marc Schwartz, MD², Annette Scierka Wilson, PhD³, David Binion, MD^2
1University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA; ²UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA; ³University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic altered significantly the lifestyle of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) patients and their routine health care. We sought to investigate and describe the effects this pandemic had in the healthcare management of IBD patients in our tertiary center.

Methods: We compared the healthcare utilization, medication prescriptions, routine labs and the quality of life (approximated by the Short Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (SIBDQ)) of IBD patients enrolled in our longitudinal natural history registry after the onset of the pandemic to those in the prior two years. Since the lockdown in Pennsylvania was implemented in late March 2020, the study was designed to compare data collected from March 2018 -2019 (year 1), March 2019 -2020 (year 2) and March 2020 -2021 (year 3 or pandemic year) and it included IBD patients that had at least one follow-up visit with their provider (in clinic or via telemedicine) in each year.

Results: 677 patients were included in the study (Crohn's disease 70%, Ulcerative Colitis 30%, mean disease duration 22 years). Telemedicine visits were the majority (80%) of follow up visits during the pandemic year compared to 8% and 11% in year 1 and 2. Despite decrease access to clinic visits, 89 patients (13%) required hospital admissions during the pandemic year, which was significantly lower than the previous years [137 (20%) in year 1, 128 (19%) in year 2, p=0.0013). No significant differences were noticed in the requirement of systemic steroids and immunomodulators between the years. Yet, the requirement for Anti-TNF agents and systemic antibiotics was significantly reduced (p=0.011 and p=0.013 respectively). Surprisingly, the mean SIBDQ was not significantly different between the study years.

Discussion: Despite decreased access to clinic visits due to the COVID19 pandemic, the number of hospital admissions or need for systemic steroids were not increased. The number of anti-TNF prescription was decreased reflecting the earlier concerns about biologics and COVID19 amongst IBD patients. Interesting, SIBDQ scores were unchanged. This study further shows the value of telemedicine implementation in providing care to IBD patients.


Disclosures:


Amir Ghaffari, MD¹, Filippos Koutroubakis, MD², Claudia Ramos, MD¹, Elyse Johnston, MD², Jeffrey M. Dueker, MD, MPH², Gong Tang, PhD³, Dmitriy Babichenko, PhD³, Marc Schwartz, MD², Annette Scierka Wilson, PhD³, David Binion, MD². P2666 - The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Healthcare Utilization and Quality of Life in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients, ACG 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Las Vegas, Nevada: American College of Gastroenterology.