title: Development of a short questionnaire to assess the quality of life in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Most of the disease-specific quality of life (QoL) measures for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are lengthy and time consuming. None have been established for routine use in clinical practice. We designed this study to develop a short QoL measure in IBD.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 32-item questionnaire, the Crohn's and ulcerative colitis questionnaire (CUCQ)-32 was developed by reviewing the literature of the previously validated questionnaires and by consultation with patients and experts. Construct validity was carried out using the Short Form 12 and the EuroQol 5 dimensions questionnaires and two disease severity measures (the Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index and the Harvey-Bradshaw Index). Test-retest analysis was done by asking patients to complete the CUCQ questionnaire twice within a period of two weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were obtained from 205 patients with IBD who completed the CUCQ-32. Psychometric analysis showed that Cronbach's α was 0.88, item-total correlations were good, and there were no ceiling or flooring effects. Stepwise regression identified eight items that accounted for >95% of the variance in the CUCQ-32. The resulting CUCQ-8 demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.84), had good reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.94), was well correlated with the EuroQol 5 dimensions questionnaire (r = 0.58) and the Short Form-12 (r = 0.65 for physical component and r = 0.63 for mental component), and was responsive to change (responsiveness ratio was 0.64, p-value < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CUCQ-8 is a short questionnaire that has the potential to be an efficient tool for assessing the QoL of all patients with IBD in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Patient and Population Health and Informatics Research, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, UK l.alrubaiy@swansea.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Laith
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alrubaiy
authors.affiliation: Patient and Population Health and Informatics Research, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: Wai-Yee
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.affiliation: Patient and Population Health and Informatics Research, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: Phedra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dodds
authors.affiliation: Patient and Population Health and Informatics Research, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: Hayley Anne
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Hutchings
authors.affiliation: Patient and Population Health and Informatics Research, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: Ian Trevor
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: Patient and Population Health and Informatics Research, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.affiliation: Patient and Population Health and Informatics Research, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: John Gordon
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000523:psychology*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Crohn’s disease; Inflammatory bowel disease; colitis; quality of life