Psychosocial determinants of health related quality of life in chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Abstract

Background: IBD comprises the two chronic inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). IBD patients frequently experience psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression and other impairments due to the complex interactions between the dysfunctional brain-gut axis. IBD patients report lower quality of life compared to age and sex-matched health controls. Aim: Current research demonstrates that some of the main determinants of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in IBD include work disability, increased disease severity, number of relapses, biological treatment and hospitalization rate. Despite the established strong psychosocial component of IBD, there is limited data available on how psychosocial factors influence HRQOL in these patients. The goal of this study is to characterize some of the psychosocial variables that influence HRQOL in IBD. Methods: This study is an observational cohort of 93 IBD (59CD;34UC: 66 inactive, 27 active disease) patients attending McGill University Health Centre IBD clinic Patients completed several validated questionnaires relating to different psychosocial parameters. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 software. Results: Preliminary analyses of this patient population reveal statistically significant negative correlation between HRQOL and hospital anxiety (r=-0.299, p<0.05) as well as positive correlation between HRQOL and Generalized Self-Efficacy (r=0.557, p<0.05). Additionally, analyses of self-reported emotional intelligence (SREIT) in this population reveal significant correlation between SREIT and ability to adaptively cope with disease (r=0.435, p<0.01). Conclusion: Psychosocial factors related to self efficacy and EI are key determinants of HRQOL in IBD and are being defined further in a multivariate model