Quality of life in Korean patients with inflammatory bowel diseases: ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and intestinal Behcet's disease

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome factor in ch ronic diseases such as inflammatory bower disease (IBD). This study used th e Korean translation of the disease-specific, self-administered Inflammator y Bowel Disease. Questionnaire (IBDQ) to compare HRQOL in ulcerative coliti s (UC; n = 98), Crohn's disease (CD; n = 49), and intestinal Behcet's disea se (BD; n = 34). In addition to the current status, patients were asked ret rospectively to recall their symptoms at the beginning and during the worst period of their disease. Disease activity was measured by St. Mark's Activ ity Index, Crohn's disease Activity Index (CDAI), and the Harvey-Bradshaw I ndex (HBI). In all IBD patients, including those with ED, the IBDQ total sc ore during the worst period was significantly lower than that at present an d that at the beginning of the disease. However, there were no significant differences between groups regarding the total IBDQ score or its various di mensions. In UC a strong correlation between IBDQ scores and St. Mark's Act ivity Index was observed (r = -0.708, P<0.001). IBDQ scores were also highl y cor related with CDAI and HBI in both CD:(r=-0.506, P<0.001 for CDAI; r = -0.600, P<0.001 for HBI) and ED (r = -0.687, P<0.001 for CDAI; r = -0.531, P<0.001 for HBI). However, the current IBDQ score was not related to demog raphic parameters such as gender, age, educational status, economic status, and marital status as well as disease factors such as duration of disease, history of operation or hospital admission, extent of disease in UC, invol ved region in CD, and clinical type in ED. We conclude that the Korean IBDQ is a responsive and promising instrument for measuring HRQOL of IBD patien ts in clinical trials. In addition, the IBDQ can be helpful in developing a disease-specific activity index in ED.