A cross sectional study on quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic relapsing diseases. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients has an impaired health‐related quality of life. This study was conducted to identify the factors which affect the HRQOL in IBD patients.
Materials and Methods: Eighty eight patients were included in the study. This was a prospective cross-sectional study carried out at Madras Medical College, Institute of Medical Gastroenterology. They were given IBD questionnaire (IBDQ‐32) & Pittsburgh sleep quality index questionnaire and asked to fill the same. Sociodemographic data were collected from these patients. Disease activity in IBD was assessed by Crohn’s disease activity index (CDAI) and ulcerative colitis activity index (UCAI). The correlations of sleep quality, sociodemographic variables, and disease characteristics with IBDQ were investigated.
Results: IBDQ‐32 mean score was lower in patients who had more severe disease at initial presentation (P=0.03),recurrent hospitalization (P = 0.002), poor sleep quality (P < 0.001), hypoalbuminemia (P=0.02), anemia (P = 0.03), multiple relapses(P=0.003) and those patients who were on biologicals (P = 0.01) relative to their counterparts. A multivariate regression analysis identified the predictors of decreased HRQOL as hypoalbuminaemia (p=0.015), poor sleep quality (P = 0.013), multiple relapses(P=0.01) and disease severity (P = 0.002).
Conclusion: Impaired HRQOL was significantly associated with poor sleep quality, hypoalbuminemia, multiple relapses and disease severity in IBD patients. Therefore, evaluation of folic acid level and efficacy of its supplementation in prospective studies is recommended.