Gastroenterology

Gastroenterology

Volume 96, Issue 2, Part 2, February 1989, Pages 804-810
Gastroenterology

A New Measure of Health Status for Clinical Trials in Inflammatory Bowel Disease+,++

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-5085(89)80080-0Get rights and content

We have developed a measure of subjective health status (quality of life) for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Ninety-seven patients with IBD described problems they had experienced as a result of the disease; the 32 most frequent and important items were included in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ). Sixty-one IBD patients were evaluated twice. One month separated the evaluations, at which disease activity indices, the IBDQ, and a number of other questionnaires were administered. Reproducibility studies in 19 stable patients showed improvement in scores, but also a small within-person standard deviation. Responsiveness studies revealed large changes in scores in patients who had improved or deteriorated and suggested that the IBDQ was more responsive than a general health status measure. Responsiveness appeared greater in patients with ulcerative colitis than in those with Crohn's disease. Predicted and observed correlations between changes in IBDQ score and changes in other measures were similar. We conclude that although further testing is required, particularly in examining the relation between changes in the IBDQ and changes in the activity of Crohn's disease, the IBDQ shows promise as a measure of health status for clinical trials in IBD.

References (32)

  • J Myren et al.

    The OMGE Multinational Inflammatory Bowel Disease Survey 1976–1982. A further report on 2657 cases

    Scand J Gastroenterol

    (1984)
  • PAM Van Hees et al.

    An index of inflammatory activity in patients with Crohn's disease

    Gut

    (1980)
  • FT De Dombal et al.

    IOIBD Report No. 1: Observer variation in calculating indices of severity and activity in Crohn's disease

    Gut

    (1987)
  • K Kroner

    Are you prepared for your ulcerative colitis patient?

    Nursing

    (1980)
  • D Sutherland

    Ulcerative colitis

    Nursing Times

    (1982)
  • JB Murray

    Psychological factors in ulcerative colitis

    J Genet Psychol

    (1984)
  • Cited by (1040)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    +

    This study was supported in part by the Canadian Foundation for Ileitis and Colitis. Dr. Guyatt is a career scientist of the Ontario Ministry of Health.

    ++

    The authors thank Marysia Donnelly, Helen Pikula, and Drs. R.A. Chambers, C.S. Kumaranayake, T.L. Seaton, M.E. Castelli, S.M. Collins, R.H. Hunt, B.J. Lumb, R.L. Rossman, F.G. Saibil, and E.J. Prokipchuk for their help in recruiting patients for this study.

    View full text