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During the COVID-19 pandemic, disinfection became an integral part of everybody's life in order to avoid spreading the coronavirus. In 2021, an original anonymous online survey was carried out. The questions concerned the usage of disinfectants. The study population included 56 subjects diagnosed by a physician with hand eczema (HE-derm group) and 114 subjects with no hand skin disease diagnosed by a specialist (non-derm). The HE and non-HE groups were distinguished. Nearly 80% of the HE group, and 10% of the non-HE group, experienced worsening of hand skin lesions caused by increased skin disinfection. HE-group respondents more often declared the occurrence of new hand skin symptoms, over 80% of the subjects of this group had more than 1 new symptom (compared to nearly 40% of the non-HE group). Exacerbations of the skin disease were more frequently observed by the HE group during the pandemic. There was a statistically significant decrease of the quality of life in the HE group compared to the non-HE group during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in the prevalence of hand skin symptoms and deterioration of the skin condition. Education on appropriate disinfection techniques and skincare, as well as early dermatological intervention, might allow us to limit the development of hand skin diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, disinfection became an integral part of everybody’s life in order to avoid spreading the coronavirus. In 2021, an original anonymous online survey was carried out. The questions concerned the usage of disinfectants. The study population included 56 subjects diagnosed by a physician with hand eczema (HE-derm group) and 114 subjects with no hand skin disease diagnosed by a specialist (non-derm). The HE and non-HE groups were distinguished. Nearly 80% of the HE group, and 10% of the non-HE group, experienced worsening of hand skin lesions caused by increased skin disinfection. HE-group respondents more often declared the occurrence of new hand skin symptoms, over 80% of the subjects of this group had more than 1 new symptom (compared to nearly 40% of the non-HE group). Exacerbations of the skin disease were more frequently observed by the HE group during the pandemic. There was a statistically significant decrease of the quality of life in the HE group compared to the non-HE group during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in the prevalence of hand skin symptoms and deterioration of the skin condition. Education on appropriate disinfection techniques and skincare, as well as early dermatological intervention, might allow us to limit the development of hand skin diseases.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a global public health emergency, has changed dermatology practice and daily routine in just under two years. Much has been written in the literature about COVID-19-associated skin manifestations. Nevertheless, much less has been written regarding skin manifestations in patients affected by severe immune-mediated skin diseases, e.g., psoriasis and hidradenitis suppurativa, undergoing biological treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak. Thus, the aim of this article is to provide the reader with an overview of the cutaneous manifestations during the COVID-19 pandemic in this subset of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic challenges healthcare services. Concomitantly, this pandemic had a stimulating effect on technological expansions related to telehealth and telemedicine. We sought to elucidate the principal patients' reasons for using telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic and the propensity to use it thereafter. Our primary objective was to identify the reasons of the survey participants' disparate attitudes toward the use of telemedicine. We performed an online, multilingual 30-question survey for 14 days during March–April 2021, focusing on the perception and usage of telemedicine and their intent to use it after the pandemic. We analyzed the data to identify the attributes influencing the intent to use telemedicine and built decision trees to highlight the most important related variables. We examined 473 answers: 272 from Israel, 87 from Uruguay, and 114 worldwide. Most participants were women (64.6%), married (63.8%) with 1–2 children (52.9%), and living in urban areas (84.6%). Only a third of the participants intended to continue using telemedicine after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our main findings are that an expected substitution effect, technical proficiency, reduced queueing times, and peer experience are the four major factors in the overall adoption of telemedicine. Specifically, (1) for most participants, the major factor influencing their telemedicine usage is the implicit expectation that such a visit will be a full substitute for an in-person appointment; (2) another factor affecting telemedicine usage by patients is their overall technical proficiency and comfort level in the use of common web-based tools, such as social media, while seeking relevant medical information; (3) time saving as telemedicine can allow for asynchronous communications, thereby reducing physical travel and queuing times at the clinic; and finally (4) some participants have also indicated that telemedicine seems more attractive to them after watching family and friends (peer experience) use it successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]