Comparative Assessment of the Quality of Life and the Level of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

Aim: To assess the quality of life, the level of anxiety and depression in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) depending on disease active/inactive status.

Design: comparative prospective study.

Materials and methods. In 2018–2020, a clinical study was conducted in Prof. S. V. Ochapovskiy Regional Clinical Hospital No. 1, which enrolled 218 patients: 178 patients with UC (139 patients with active disease and 39 patients with inactive disease) and 40 healthy volunteers (control group). In addition to routine examinations and faecal inflammatory markers, all patients underwent a quality-of-life assessment using The Short Form-36 (SF-36) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ), Clinical Activity Index (CAI), anxiety and depression evaluation using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HADS) scale.

Results. The lowest mean values for SF-36 and the strongest correlations with CAI were observed in UC patients for the following domains: viability scale, overall health and emotional functioning (р < 0.05). Significant differences were recorded for IBDQ in mean values and correlations between the points on the scale and CAI for all domains (р = 0.0001). The strongest correlations were observed for the overall points and the “intestinal factor” domain (р = 0.0001). Lower mean values for SF-36 were in patients with chronic diseases not related to UC; for IBDQ, the situation was opposite — patients with extraintestinal UC signs had lower mean values. We found a correlation between HADS and CAI points which shows severity of an UC episode (r = 0.560; р = 0.01).

Conclusions. The results demonstrate the importance of evaluation of the quality of life of patients with UC using both specific and non-specific questionnaires, since they complement each other and allow personalising therapeutic approaches for patients with UC.

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