175 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on infertility and endometriosis patients 8 The inclusion criteria for the infertility patients were (i) age ≥18 years, and (ii) women with infertility who were being treated at the Department of Reproductive Medicine of Amsterdam UMC or women who had joined the online network of the national patient organization for infertility. The inclusion criteria for endometriosis patients were (i) age ≥18 years, and (ii) a self-reported endometriosis diagnosis and a member of the national patient organization for endometriosis or receiving treatment at the Endometriosis Centre of Amsterdam UMC. For both groups of patients the exclusion criteria were: (i) age <18 years old, or (ii) an inability to read and write in the Dutch language. Healthcare providers were included if they were a member of the NVOG or the VVF and routinely treated women with infertility and/or endometriosis. Questionnaires Three different online questionnaires were developed for infertility patients, endometriosis patients and healthcare providers respectively. The questionnaires were developed in collaboration with the national patient organizations for infertility and endometriosis respectively: FREYA and De Endometriose Stichting. The questionnaires for infertility patients and endometriosis patients were distributed between May 2020 and July 2020. The questionnaire for healthcare providers was distributed between August 2020 and October 2020. The questionnaires for infertility patients consisted of (i) a demographics and background section, (ii) a section on the assessment of virtual care and stress, and (iii) the Dutch fertility-related quality of life questionnaire (FertiQol). The questionnaires for endometriosis patients consisted of (i) a demographics and background section, (ii) a section on the assessment of virtual care and stress, and (iii) the patient-centeredness of endometriosis care (ENDOCARE) questionnaire (ECQ). The questionnaire on the assessment of virtual care and stress contained questions on changes in appointments during COVID-19, experience with the different modalities used to alter appointments and care (telephone and video consultations), communication and information during COVID-19, treatment during COVID-19, dealing with change and experiencing stress (Supplementary information). FertiQol is a validated questionnaire evaluating the fertility-related quality of life of infertility patients. It consists of 36 items identifying core quality of life, treatment quality of life and overall quality of life (1, 2). The FertiQoL questionnaire covers six different subdomains: (i) mind–body, (ii) relational, (iii) social, (iv) emotional, (v) environment, and (vi) tolerability (Table 1). Likert scales (0–4) are used to answer the FertiQoL questions, and the outcomes are transformed to a scale ranging from 0 to 100 for all individual subdomains (2). A reference population obtained from Aarts and colleagues was used for a comparison of FertiQoL scores during the COVID-19 pandemic with FertiQoL scores obtained before the pandemic in the Dutch population (1).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw