Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health lifestyle in patients with peripheral artery disease: A cross-sectional study.
Raphael Mendes Ritti-Dias, Marilia Almeida Correia, Juliana Ferreira Carvalho and 4 others
PMID 35287835WHAT IT FOUND
Patients with peripheral artery disease reported more sitting and TV watching, less exercise, worse mood, and reduced walking during pandemic isolation.
Ask about these changes.
Key findings
01Of 136 patients, 76.5% reported spending more time sitting and 58.8% more time watching TV during the pandemic.
02Regular physical exercise was reported by 54.4% before the pandemic and by 28.7% during it.
03Patients reported decline in walking capacity (43.4%), more anxiety (50.7%), unhappiness (30.1%), stress (25.0%), and depression (19.9%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The questionnaire was not validated and was created by the researchers, so answers may not accurately measure the intended topics. All outcomes were self-reported by phone, including changes from before the pandemic, so memory and current mood could shape answers. There was no comparison group of people without PAD, so the paper cannot show whether these reports are different from the general population. PAD severity was not reassessed during isolation because of restrictions, so the results may not reflect current disease status. People with cognitive, hearing, or speech problems that would compromise phone answers were excluded, so it says little about those patients. The study is cross-sectional and cannot prove cause and effect.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that pandemic isolation caused these changes. The study was a one-time phone survey that asked patients to report current habits and compare them with their own memory of before, used a non-validated questionnaire, and had no group without PAD for comparison.