Health-related quality of life in the first year after a diagnosis of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease.
OBJECTIVE
Assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is of increasing importance in the evaluation of new therapies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Available data concerning HRQOL in pediatric patients are sparse and uniformly cross-sectional. The aim of this study was to describe HRQOL and influential factors in newly diagnosed pediatric patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis during the first 12 months after diagnosis.


METHODS
Participants were drawn from a large, prospectively derived observational IBD registry of pediatric patients studied through 18 U.S. and Canadian centers. Patients who had completed a baseline IMPACT questionnaire and for whom there were 12 months of follow-up data available were included. In addition to description of cohort, factors that were believed to influence HLQOL were assessed during the course of the year from diagnosis.


RESULTS
Two hundred eighteen children met inclusion criteria (77% Crohn's disease, 23 % ulcerative colitis, mean age 12.7 +/- 1.9 years). Mean total IMPACT score at baseline was 154, 181 at 6 months, and 191 at 1 year (possible range 0-238, with increasing scores representing better quality of life). Repeated measures analysis showed that age and disease severity significantly negatively affected the IMPACT scores during the course of the year.


CONCLUSIONS
In this large prospective pediatric IBD cohort, significant improvement in HRQOL is noted during the year from diagnosis. Mean IMPACT scores varied significantly depending on the disease severity and also decreased with increasing age.
Otley
Anthony R
AR
FRCPC, Division of Gastroenterology & Nutrition, IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. arotley@dal.ca
Griffiths
Anne M
AM
Hale
Sandra
S
Kugathasan
Subra
S
Pfefferkorn
Marian
M
Mezoff
Adam
A
Rosh
Joel
J
Tolia
Vasundhara
V
Markowitz
James
J
Mack
David
D
Oliva-Hemker
Maria
M
Wyllie
Robert
R
Rothbaum
Robert
R
Bousvaros
Athos
A
Del Rosario
J Fernando
JF
Evans
Jonathan
J
Blanchard
Wade
W
Hyams
Jeffrey
J
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000523:psychology; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012042:Registries; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires