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BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (QoL) is often adversely affected in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We aimed to identify factors associated with poor QoL among Canadian patients with IBD in clinical remission. METHODS: We enrolled patients at a single academic tertiary care center with inactive IBD. All eligible patients completed a series of questionnaires that included questions on demographics, disease activity, anxiety, depression and the presence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms. Stool sample for fecal calprotectin (FC) was also collected to assess for subclinical inflammation. The primary outcome measure was QoL assessed by the short inflammatory bowel disease questionnaire (SIBDQ), with planned subgroup comparisons for fatigue, anxiety, depression and IBS symptoms. RESULTS: Ninety-three patients were eligible for inclusion in this study. The median SIBDQ scores were lower in patients with anxiety (P < 0.001), depression (P = 0.004), IBS symptoms (P < 0.001) and fatigue (P = 0.018). Elevated FC in patients in clinical remission did not impact QoL. These findings were consistent on multivariate linear regression. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety, depression, fatigue and IBS symptoms are all independently associated with lower QoL in patients with inactive IBD. Clinicians are encouraged to screen for these important factors as they may detrimentally impact QoL in IBD patients even in clinical remission.
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AIMS: The aim of this study was to assess health-related quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Zhejiang, Mainland China. BACKGROUND: The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease in China is believed to be low but has been increasing in the past decade. The quality of life of Chinese patients with inflammatory bowel disease is unknown. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: The study was conducted in 92 patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Zhejiang, China, 52 with ulcerative colitis and 40 with Crohn's disease. Health-related quality of life was measured by the Chinese version of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire and Short Form-36, respectively. Disease activity was assessed by the Walmsley and Harvey-Bradshaw simple indices for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, respectively. Demographic and clinical variables were also recorded. Short Form-36 data from the study sample were compared with a reference population of 1688 Chinese people residing in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. RESULTS: No significant health-related quality of life differences were found between patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease (p > 0.05). Pooled data showed that inflammatory bowel disease patients with active disease had significantly lower scores for all eight dimensions of Short Form-36 compared to those in remission (p < 0.01); those with active disease scored significantly lower than population norms in all dimensions of Short Form-36 except mental health (p < 0.05); whereas those in remission scored significantly lower than population norms in role physical (p < 0.01) and general health dimensions (p < 0.05). The regression analyses identified only disease activity index and employment status to explain variations in health-related quality of life (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Inflammatory bowel disease similarly impairs health-related quality of life in patients with both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The results suggest that any interventions that produce a stable clinical remission, whether medical or surgical, allowing patients to return to their usual work position can decrease the disease impact on their daily lives.