The COVID-19 pandemic led to a paradigm shift in the way primary care operates and patients with non-COVID related symptoms were managed. Almost all patients were managed remotely. Routes to refer patients routinely for specialist care were paused. This study aims to use primary care electronic healthcare records to explore changing trends in the prevalence and incidence of consultations for rheumatic musculoskeletal disorders (RMDs), prescribing of analgesia, and the incidence and time to diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and juvenile idiopathic arthropathy (JIA) in the pre- peri- and post- pandemic periods.
This research was funded by FOREUM - Foundation for Research in Rheumatology