An online video delivered on mobile phones could help to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and improve uptake among patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease, suggest study findings presented at the EULAR 2021 Virtual Congress.

Skou ST, Bricca A, Roos EM. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2018. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2018.07.010

One additional patient reported restricted access to hydroxychloroquine.

To address this, the 18-month WE-CAN study compared a diet and exercise intervention – involving walking, weight training, and low-calorie meals or meal replacements – with a control intervention comprising face-to-face nutrition and health education meetings.

However, he believes “the time is now to move ahead very quickly with understanding all of this.”

“The substantially high lifetime [recurrence rate] of axSpA for [first-degree relatives] of AS probands necessitates greater emphasis on patient education and counselling,” say researcher Sjef van der Linden (University of Bern, Switzerland) and colleagues.

Study findings support a move to assess cardiovascular risk and monitor for malignancies in patients with psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis taking the Janus kinase inhibitor tofacitinib.

The risk for death among patients exposed to antidepressants was highest for those younger than 55 years of age, with a hazard ratio of 6.66, after taking into account sex, comorbidity, cohabitation, employment status, education, and income.

A nurse-led education intervention may improve safety competency among people initiating biologics for spondyloarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, French study findings indicate.

We report here our investigation of the differences in disease activity and target achievement of two patient cohorts with different T2T implementations.

However, most (93%) were reluctant to switch a reference molecule to a biosimilar while the patient was doing well under the originator medicine.

A monthly selection of topical peer-reviewed articles from the Adis journals, curated by the editors.

A single ultrasound-guided corticosteroid and local anesthetic intra-articular hip injection offers greater pain relief to people with moderate hip osteoarthritis than the best current treatment of advice and education, research suggests.

The researchers say that the COVID-19 pandemic had a “substantial impact” on training experiences, with 79% of trainees reporting an effect on outpatient clinical work and 55% reporting an effect on didactic education.

How can rheumatologists respond to the challenges associated with rituximab use during the pandemic?

Pain, disease activity level, active joint count, and morning stiffness reported by children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis or by their parents are “valid and reliable tools for patient self-monitoring,” report researchers.

They include four overarching principles emphasizing the importance of increased awareness, regular screening, management of modifiable risk factors, and patient education, as well as 19 specific recommendations covering prediction tools and interventions.

Sebastian Sattui: I think every patient is an independent discussion.

Zachary Wallace discusses the changes that have occurred in rheumatology practice as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and explores what lessons can be taken forward to improve patient care.

These factors included female sex, higher BMI, fewer years in education, joint contractures, digital ulcers, gastrointestinal or skin involvement, and the presence of Sjögren’s syndrome or rheumatoid arthritis.