Psychosocial moderators of quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a chronic disorder with symptoms that ran ge in intensity from mild and infrequent to severe and continuous. Similarl y the impact of IBS on Quality of Life (QOL) measures can range from very s mall to disabling. In a very simple model one might expect a change in symp tom intensity or frequency to be reflected in a similar change in QOL. Howe ver, a variety of other factors may alter this straightforward and unidirec tional relationship between symptomatic treatment and QOL improvement. This paper presents several classes of these potential. moderator variables in QOL outcome in IBS, as well as specific models of symptom, moderator, QOL r elationships that can be investigated in future research. An illustrative e xample of a regression approach to analysis of psychosocial moderator varia bles indicates both psychosocial measures, and symptom severity, independen tly contribute to the prediction of QOL in IBS.