Adverse skin reactions following different types of mask usage during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Chayada Chaiyabutr, Thanisorn Sukakul, Chutipon Pruksaeakanan, Janista Thumrongtharadol, Waranya Boonchai
Abstract
report changes and 26% (n = 67) reported worsening of their cutaneous clinical condition during presence of symptoms, without significant differences between treatment groups. Most respondents (85%) did not report changes in AD/PsO treatment. Twenty-nine percent (n = 175) of respondents felt more susceptible for an infection (with a more severe course), and 74% (n = 441) of the respondents experienced an increased level of stress. Respondents with systemic therapy were found to feel more vulnerable (42%) compared to respondents without systemic therapy (11%) (P < 0.00001). Moreover, our results showed that respondents with systemic therapy were more satisfied with the information concerning COVID-19 provided by the hospital compared to respondents without systemic therapy. This might be explained by the information regarding therapy and COVID-19 that was send only to patients with systemic therapy. Limitations of this study include the limited number of people tested for SARS-CoV-2 resulting from limited testing capacity in the Netherlands during the study period. Therefore, we also report on COVID-19 related symptoms accompanied by predictive values which are associated with a positive COVID-19 test. 10 Furthermore, a recall bias could not be ruled out due to the retrospective design, although it is expected to be the same in both treatment groups. This study gives more insight into COVID-19 (related symptoms) and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in respondents with inflammatory skin diseases treated with or without systemic therapy. We did not find significant differences in the number, nature, and duration of symptoms and infections between both treatment groups (P > 0.05). This might suggest that there is no difference in susceptibility for a (severe) COVID-19 infection in respondents using systemic versus respondents without systemic therapy, with an increased psychological burden in respondents with systemic therapy.