Professional paper
The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stress-related Dermatologic Diseases
Eda Ustaoglu
orcid.org/0000-0003-0972-4673
; Department of Dermatology, Bursa City Hospital, Bursa, Turkey
Abstract
The number and variety of patients admitted to hospitals have
changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes have also affected
dermatology clinics. The pandemic has had an adverse effect on the psychol-
ogy of people by negatively affecting their quality of life. Patients who were
admitted to the Bursa City Hospital Dermatology Clinic between July 15, 2020
and October 15, 2020 and from July 15, 2019 to October 15, 2019 were includ-
ed in this study. The data of patients were gathered retrospectively by review-
ing the electronic medical records and International Classification Diseases
(ICD-10) codes. Our results showed that, despite the decrease in the total
number of applications, a significant increase was observed in the frequency
of stress-related dermatological diseases such as psoriasis (P<0.001), urticaria
(P<0.001), atopic dermatitis (P<0.001), and seborrheic dermatitis (P=0.035).
However, there was no significant change in the rates of alopecia areata, vit-
iligo, herpes zoster, and lichen simplex chronicus (P>0.05, for all). There was
a significant decrease in the telogen effluvium rate during the pandemic
(P<0.001). Our study demonstrates that the incidence of certain stress-related
dermatologic diseases increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may
increase awareness of dermatologists on this issue.
Keywords
COVID-19; stress; outpatient; dermatology.
Hrčak ID:
299634
URI
Publication date:
14.9.2022.
Visits: 609 *