title: Systematic Review of the Clinical Disease Severity Indices for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Clinical disease severity indices are increasingly being used in choosing treatment and monitoring the response of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of this study was to systematically review the clinical disease severity indices in IBD and to appraise their measurement properties and methodological quality.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched the MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO databases for original articles describing the development and/or evaluation of one or more of the measurement properties of clinical disease severity indices used in IBD. We assessed these properties (e.g., internal consistency, reliability, validity, responsiveness) using a standardized checklist.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We examined the full text of 142 articles that we deemed potentially eligible and identified 22 clinical disease severity indices in IBD. No clinical disease index has met all the required measurement properties. All of the validation studies were not descriptive enough to allow assessment of their methodology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although commonly used in multiple clinical trials, none of the clinical disease severity indices in IBD had all the required measurement properties. Further validation studies are required.
authors.affiliation: *Patient & Population Health and Informatics Research, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom; †Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Heath Park, Cardiff, United Kingdom; and ‡Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Burlington, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Laith
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alrubaiy
authors.forename: Ibtihal
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rikaby
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sageer
authors.forename: Hayley Anne
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Hutchings
authors.forename: John Gordon
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D063189:Symptom Assessment / Q000592:standards*